Grace Before a Meal

 

Grace Before a Meal

Our Father in Heaven,

We thank you for our daily bread which you provide, for the fresh food in our fridge and the groceries in our pantry, and the food on our table. 

Fill our hearts with your generous compassion, that those of us who have more than enough might share with those who do not have enough. 

Bless them, and bless us, Lord, and these gifts which we receive from you who make the sun to shine and the rain to fall on all of us, good and bad, poor and rich. 

We ask this though Jesus your Son, who is Christ the Lord. Amen.

National Volunteer Training Week

 

Thanks to all of our Vincentians who have completed the virtual training for Bingo World! By volunteering your time in this way we are able to secure more funds to continue our mission helping families, seniors and individuals in our community, who have fallen on hard times.

Homily for World Day of the Poor 2023

 

Do not turn your face away from one who is poor

- Sunday Homily by Deacon Marian, St. Elizabeth Seton Parish, Newmarket

Today, the Church celebrates World Day of the Poor.  This year’s theme is: Do not turn away your face from anyone who is poor.

St. Vincent de Paul is one of the very well-known saints of the Church. His life, commitment and dedication to God are inspirational and exemplary. He was a truly great servant of God, who devoted himself to the poor and the needy. This young Frenchman, shortly after his ordination to the priesthood, was abducted on a ship, auctioned off as a slave and spent two years in bondage. Through many of his own hard experiences St. Vincent de Paul helped those who were marginalized and underprivileged. He founded a congregation of people who were concerned about the care of those who had been neglected by society, ignored and abandoned, with no one to help or assist them. 

His works and ministry inspired many others during his life and after his passing, and eventually led to the foundation of the modern day Society of St. Vincent de Paul that is renowned for its work among the poor throughout the world.

The parable of the talents, which Jesus uses in today’s gospel is very interesting and challenging, and so appropriate on this World Day of the Poor.

We cannot forget that nothing is really ours alone. Anything we own is God's gift. God's gift is not only our money or possessions or ownership, but also our friendships, relations, skills, talents, spiritual powers and various charisms.

We should be and live, with all we have, in the view of all; like nature around us, like a flower in the sun, like the sun itself. We obviously need to own things, of course the right to private property is valid. St. John Paul II said it very clearly in his encyclical "On Social Concern": The goods of the world are meant for all.

The conclusions from today’s gospel parable are hard, when we consider that in our 21st century many people are still poor, hungry and suffering because of the  inadequate distribution of resources and other injustices. 

Obviously we as individuals cannot do much, but if we think and reflect on the life and service of St. Vincent de Paul, we definitely can start to build a bridge between those in need and ourselves. 

Having heard today’s Gospel let us be filled with the conviction and the desire to use our gifts, talents and treasure. Let us all be exemplary, righteous and worthy in all of our actions, so that we may truly be good role models for one another in our daily lives. 

Let us be mindful of our baptismal promises, our obligations and calling to serve God with faith and commitment, and to proclaim the Good News always by being Christ's real presence to all people in our world. 

And in our own ways let us assist all people in need.  May this  special Day of the Poor become an opportunity for opening our hearts to share some of our talents, gifts, time and resources.

Deacon Marian is a member of SSVP in Newmarket.

The Test of Progress

 

The test of our progress

is not

whether we add more

to the abundance of those

who have much; 

it is

whether we provide enough

for those

who have too little.

― Franklin D. Roosevelt

Lights shining in the world

 

River Jordan. Image credit https://faith.nd.edu/

Selection by Deacon Steve: Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

“Jesus rises from the waters; the world rises with him. The heavens like Paradise with its flaming sword, closed by Adam for himself and his descendants, are rent open. The Spirit comes to him as an equal, bearing witness to his Godhead. A voice bears witness to him from heaven, his place of origin. The Spirit descends in bodily form like the dove that so long ago announced the ending of the flood and so gives honour to the body that is one with God.

Today let us do honour to Christ’s baptism and celebrate this feast in holiness. Be cleansed entirely and continue to be cleansed. Nothing gives such pleasure to God as the conversion and the salvation of people, for whom God’s every word and every revelation exist. Our Lord wants you to become a living force for all humanity, lights shining in the world. You are to be radiant lights as you stand beside Christ, the great light, bathed in the glory of Christ who is the light of heaven. You are to enjoy more and more the pure light of the Trinity, as now you have received – though not in its fullness- a ray of its splendor, proceeding from the one God, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be power and glory forever and ever. Amen”

From the Second Reading- From a Sermon by Saint Gregory Nazianzus, bishop – Office of Readings, Liturgy of the Hours on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, p. 634- 635.

Watchful Servants - Reflection by Deacon Steve

Image: nhla.com

In our lives today there is no limit to the worries we face. Whether economic or financial matters, worries about our families, or our health.  Sometimes, no matter how much we try to remain focused on the important things in our life, remaining positive in our outlook and perspectives, these worries can cause us to be doubtful and maybe even negative about what lies ahead for us in life.

In the Gospel for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time our Lord suggests that we, “Be dressed for action… be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks…”

The parable about the watchful servant tells us that our Lord will show up at times we do not expect him to. It is a reminder that the Master will surprise us “ordinary servants” while just doing the best we can. For some spiritual writers surprise is another name for grace.

And so with God’s grace opening our hearts
there will occur from time to time special moments
where we will experience the divine, albeit in small bits.

Our Lord knocks on our door in the ordinary course of our lives when we are simply fulfilling our family or job responsibilities, but especially when presented with the opportunity to serve others, including notably, the poor and the suffering.

If we are alert and open the door when our Lord knocks, we will recognize the master arriving from the wedding feast. More importantly, the Master will bring the wedding feast to us, serving us and allowing his abundant life and our life to flow into each other. 

“Blessed are those… whom the master finds alert when he comes… he will come and serve them.”

Anxious and Troubled?

This Sunday's gospel reading about the visit of Jesus to the home of Martha and Mary generates more than its fair share of popular opinions from people who hear it. Understandably, many people empathise with Martha, feeling that she unfairly got the short end of the stick from Jesus and that Mary got off like a Goody Two-shoes.

To be clear: Jesus did NOT pass judgement on Martha's acts of service themselves. That would not be consistent with Jesus' description of himself as having come to serve, not to be served, and his mandate to the apostles in the Gospel of John when he washed their feet at the Last Supper. 

Listen again to what Jesus actually said: "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled..." Other English translations use words like: worried, bothered, upset, distracted, fretting, fussing. In a nutshell, Martha's preoccupation with fulfilling society's expectations of the perfect hostess, and her resentment at Mary's disregard for these expectations, meant that Martha didn't hear a word that Jesus was saying. Houses in Jewish Palestine of the day were not large. Jesus, who could teach thousands, would have been audible anywhere in the house and Martha would have been able to hear Jesus if she had only chosen to listen. 

We have a soft spot for Martha because each of us can so easily identify with her resentment, a resentment that must have built up so much that she actually interrupted Jesus with an accusing question: "Master, do you not care that my sister has left me to do the serving alone?" Martha wasn't only resentful towards Mary, but even towards Jesus himself whom she saw aiding and abetting Mary's 'laziness'. If her brother Lazarus was present with the men that day she was probably resentful towards him too. But instead of going quietly to Mary and whispering in her ear for some help, she brashly 'goes to the top', interrupting Jesus while he is teaching. That made such an impression that the story made its way into the gospel tradition. What Jesus taught there that day did not even get recorded.

Resentment is probably an 'under-confessed' and under-repented 'sin'. The reason for that is that it is almost always fully justified in our minds. "Darn right I'm upset! Didn't you see what he got away with? Didn't you read what she said? Why don't more people step up and (... fill in your hobby horse here)?"

This Sunday's gospel is an opportunity for a mini examination of conscience. What resentments have I been carrying? In the home, with my spouse, my children, my neighbours, my work colleagues, my Vincentian confreres? A good place to do this exercise is setting aside 15 or 20 minutes and sitting at the feet of Jesus.

How does King Jesus want to be served?

 

Christ of the Breadlines - Fritz Eichenberg

Today's parable tells us that the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, the King of the Universe, chose once and for all to be in solidarity and identify himself with the lowliest people. Maybe it's time to relegate the Sistine Chapel, awe-inspiring icons, and portraits of the royal redeemer to museums. If we want to respect Jesus' self-portrait, we would do better to contemplate Fritz Eichenberg's "The Christ of the Breadlines," a black and white etching of a slightly stooped, racially indistinct Christ, distinguishable from the destitute women and men with whom he waits by nothing more than how his presence radiates out to them. This etching illustrates Christ's choice to identify with the vulnerable. Whereas humanity tends to envision the divine as the utmost expression of magnificent "things that matter," Jesus tells us to seek God's self-revelation at the lowest end of the scales of power and prestige.

- Sr. Mary M. McGlone, a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet

An extract from The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ: The king of solidarity published in the National Catholic Reporter

Conference Reading - Sharing what we have been given

 

"Let the people we encounter know about God through the lives we lead..."

Conference spiritual reading selected by Deacon Steve.

“If we have to tell people about God, let us tell them about what he has done for us, about what we have personally experienced; the transformation of our fears, the freedom from the prisons of false myths, the passion of our hunger and where it has led us. That is, if we have to speak. Otherwise, let the people we encounter know about God through the lives we lead: by our willingness to bear the pain of forgiving, by our joy in the humblest of tasks, by our laughter even in the darkest moments.

“What we have been given is not only given for us. It is given to be shared. Only in that sharing do we experience what it means to be Church, and if we are truly Church, then we can transform the institutions we now have and thereby create open spaces - those temples and sanctuaries - in which God who promises to be ever with us, can dwell and in which others who are now lost and alienated and searching can dwell and fulfill themselves creatively.”

Williams, S.J., Monty. “Stepping into Mystery: Four Approaches to a Spiritual Life” Novalis Publishing Inc., Toronto 2012, P. 52