Author Archives: Friar Musings

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About Friar Musings

Franciscan friar and Catholic priest at St. Francis of Assisi in Triangle, VA

Definitive act of God

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This coming Sunday is the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord. The reading is from the Gospel of Luke (3:15-16, 21-22)

15 Now the people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Messiah. 16 John answered them all, saying, “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire……. 21 After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened 22 and the holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

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When the carols are stilled

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In today’s gospel, Jesus shows compassion for the multitude in the desert likening them to sheep without a shepherd – and He began to teach them many things. There are many lessons to be learned but perhaps the first lesson is compassion. The last two years have been years in which one only needs to look around and in the midst of political division, acrimony, and worse there are stories of great compassion. Stories which remind me of this first lesson.

As the Christmas season winds down, I am reminded of a poem by the theologian Howard Thurman:

When the carols have been stilled,
When the star-topped tree is taken down,
When family and friends are gone home,
When we are back to our schedules
The work of Christmas begins:
To welcome the refugee,
To heal a broken planet,
To feed the hungry,
To build bridges of trust, not walls of fear,
To share our gifts,
To seek justice and peace for all people,
To bring Christ’s light to the world

When the Song of the Angels is Stilled

I wish it were that easy….

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In today’s first reading we have: “Beloved: We receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.  And his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us.” I am not perfect, but mostly have “part one” in hand… it’s part two. I wish it were that easy. Continue reading →

reSOULutions

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If you search the internet for 2022 resolutions you will receive about 6 billion results. Granted there are ways in which one’s list can make it to the top of the list, nonetheless, it was interesting to see the source of some of the top returns: Good Housekeeping, Wall Street Journal, CNN/Dr Sanjay Gupta, NY Times, FoxNews, The Pioneer Woman and lots of other lesser known sources. Some were serious, others were tongue-in-cheek (“I am going to stop getting into arguments with the neighborhood dogs. It’s unproductive, and I don’t understand what the dogs are saying half of the time”) – good advice nonetheless. Continue reading →

From John to Jesus: context

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This coming Sunday is the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord. The reading is from the Gospel of Luke (3:15-16, 21-22) which describes, in minimal terms, the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist.

15 Now the people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Messiah. 16 John answered them all, saying, “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire……. 21 After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened 22 and the holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

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Epiphany attraction

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Today we celebrate The Epiphany of the Lord, traditionally celebrated on January 6th in the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox churches; but here in the West we celebrate it on a Sunday. So, welcome to our celebration of The Epiphany. It is a word taken from the Greek epiphaneia meaning “manifestation, striking appearance; from epiphanes meaning “manifest, conspicuous,” and from epiphainein “to manifest, display, show off; come suddenly into view.” Our liturgy marks the arrival of visitors, identified in Scripture as the magi, to the place where Jesus was born. Although we know virtually nothing about them, we do know they brought three gifts, each with traditional meanings. Continue reading →

Creatures of Habit

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One of the podcasts I listen to regularly is “Hidden Brain” hosted by Shankar Vendatam. It is a podcast that “explores the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior and questions that lie at the heart of our complex and changing world.” The December 27th podcast is called “Creatures of Habit.” I listened to it again today. It’s premise is “At the beginning of the year, many of us make resolutions for the months to come. We resolve to work out more, to procrastinate less, or to save more money. Though some people stick with these aspirations, many of us fall short. This week, we revisit our 2019 conversation with psychologist Wendy Wood, who shares what researchers have found about how to build good habits — and break bad ones.” I think it fits well with my earlier post “Resolutions and Habits.” Enjoy

The Prologue

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Today’s gospel is the Prologue from the Gospel of John (1:1-18). The words are familiar and are the gospel for Christmas Mass during the Day. When musing about what to write, I kept coming back to opening lines of books or first chapters that made me want to read the rest. For me the most memorable comes from Norman Maclean and his masterpiece  A River Runs Through It:  Continue reading →