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About Friar Musings

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

Evangelii Gadium

EVANGELII_GAUDIUM3.inddJust some snippets which I wanted to share….

Para 22: “God’s word is unpredictable in its power. The Gospel speaks of a seed which, once sown, grows by itself, even as the farmer sleeps (Mk 4:26-29). The Church has to accept this unruly freedom of the word, which accomplishes what it wills in ways that surpass our calculations and ways of thinking.”

Para 24: “An evangelizing community knows that the Lord has taken the initiative, he has loved us first (cf. 1 Jn 4:19), and therefore we can move forward, boldly take the initiative, go out to others, seek those who have fallen away, stand at the crossroads and welcome the outcast. Such a community has an endless desire to show mercy, the fruit of its own experience of the power of the Father’s infinite mercy. Let us try a little harder to take the first step and to become involved. Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. The Lord gets involved and he involves his own, as he kneels to wash their feet. He tells his disciples: “You will be blessed if you do this” (Jn 13:17). An evangelizing community gets involved by word and deed in people’s daily lives; it bridges distances, it is willing to abase itself if necessary, and it embraces human life, touching the suffering flesh of Christ in others.”

Evangelii Gaudium – The Joy of the Gospel

EVANGELII_GAUDIUM3.inddPope Francis has issues an apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, “The Joy of the Gospel.”  You can find the full text of the document here.  I am in the midst of reading it, but I suspect other such as Fr. James Martin, SJ, will have far more insightful thoughts.  So far here is one of my favorite lines: “The Church is called to be the house of the Father, with doors always wide open.”

Here are preliminary thoughts from Fr. Martin’s Facebook page. I think he will publish later on the “American Magazine” website Continue reading

The Advent of Vigilance

The front side (recto) of Papyrus 1, a New Tes...Matthew 24:37-4437 For as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 In (those) days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. 39 They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be (also) at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left. 42 Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. 43 Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. 44 So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.

This text is part of the fifth discourse in Matthew (24:1-25:46), which centers on the coming of the Son of Man – and that does not necessarily imply “end times” as in end of the world. The theme for the 1st Sunday in Advent for all three years is preparedness – in the everyday of life as well as for the end of life. What is common to all times is the victory of the reign of God. Continue reading

The King of Hearts

Christ, our eternal Priest-KingAbraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua – some of the great names of Israel’s history. And none of them were king. Yet under the leadership of God, they led Israel from slavery to the freedom of the promised land.  Deborah, Gideon, Samson – none of them were kings, yet under the leadership of God, these Judges united Israel to defend itself and identity against the other nations. To be the qahal Yahweh– the people of God. And the last of the judges was Samuel. It was to Samuel that the people came and said “Now that you are old, and your sons do not follow your example, appoint a king over us, as other nations have, to judge us.”  When Samuel prayed about this before the Lord, God said in answer: “Grant the people’s every request. It is not you they reject, they are rejecting me as their king.” Continue reading

The Stories That Will Be Told

Detail: left side

You know many of us here at this morning Mass can answer the question: “Where were you when you heard the news that President Kennedy had been shot.”  We are in the minority. Most folks here in the United States were not yet born on that fateful day 50 years ago.  But we tell the stories of our young war hero president, of his family, of Camelot, and all that made up the Kennedy legend.  And we tell the generations that follow.

Today we tell the story of the martyr St. Cecilia. We do not know much about here other than she lived in the 3rd century and died for the faith. We tell the generations that come after us what we know. We tell them she is the patron saint of musicians. Continue reading

End Times and Becoming

Thirty-Third Sunday Ordinary Time

Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven,
when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble,
and the day that is coming will set them on fire,
leaving them neither root nor branch (Mal 3:19)

This is the kind of reading that brings back memories of growing up in the South. I would sneak off to summer tent revivals and listen to the pastors preach up a holy firestorm of hell and damnation. There was such passion, rhythm, and vitality – it almost as though they were the Sirens to my Ulysses. It was a preaching that left no doubt that the end was near, to get right with God, and to make amends. Continue reading

About the End: The Divine Plan for Discipleship

Jesus from the Deesis MosaicTime and The Divine Plan – A Theology of History. “Teacher, when will this happen? And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?” The broad scope of the question in v.7 is significant, since a judgment of Jerusalem that wipes out the temple suggests a time of great catastrophe and a turning point in the nation’s history and identity. Such an event can only signal that God’s plan for the nation is underway. Though Luke’s form of this question is more focused on the temple than the questions in Matthew 24:3 and Mark 13:4, its implications clearly cover the same span. Continue reading

About the End: Portents, Signs and These Things

Icon ApocalypseWhen and by what Sign? In v.7 an unnamed interlocutor(s) asked Jesus, “Teacher, when will this happen? And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?” Given the introduction in v.5 where the disciples are mentioned, one assumes the disciples are the audience. But one should note that nowhere else in Luke do the disciples call Jesus “teacher.”  This is the eleventh time Jesus is so addressed and in none of the previous ten are the disciples the one addressing Jesus. Luke reserves the moniker “Teacher” for the Pharisees, lawyers, the crowd, the rich, Sadducees, and scribes.  Given the larger context of Luke, it is more likely that while the disciples are present, Jesus is responding to those present in the Temple complex. Continue reading

About the End: The Temple

Fotografía del Templo de Jerusalén en la maque...The Temple in Jerusalem. The architectural entity known as the Jerusalem Temple was a complex institution. It played a central religious and cultic role in Israelite life, as well as functioning on a political level. It was a symbol of the national state of which Jerusalem was the capital during the pre-exilic period, then of the semiautonomous community of Judeans after the exile, and finally of the Jews who continued to live in Jerusalem and the surrounding territory, with sporadic periods of autonomy, in the centuries before its final destruction. Continue reading