Dina Marie, from 88.3 in Portland, OR interviewed me this morning on the conclusion of the Christmas season and the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.
Mater Dei Radio, 88.3 “In Person” from Monday January 11, 2016
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Author Archives: Ronald Patrick Raab, C.S.C.
Friday Flowers
Finger painting
Ronald Raab, CSC
January 8, 2016
Spent class time finger painting today to counter our cold, snowy day.
On The Margins – Luke 3: 15-16, 21-22
Listen to “On the Margins”. This broadcast comes from Mater Dei Radio 88.3. WIth baptism, Jesus begins his public ministry. We listen to his authority from the Fatther and the Holy Spirit. His mission in the world becomes our mission. The Baptism of the Lord, January 10, 2016.
Stream live On The Margins on KBVM 88.3FM on Saturdays at 3:45pm and Sundays at 8am.
Feast Day of Saint Andre Bessette 2016
“With the smallest brush”
Painting: Ronald Raab, CSC
“It is with the smallest brushes that the artist paints the best painting” Brother Andre
I painted this piece with a small brush and my fingers. Saint Andre told us that the smallest gesture done in love really matters. He had no power or authority in the Church, yet he worked so many miracles and healed so many people. He was the smallest of brushes and God used him to paint a wonderfully beautiful life. Saint Andre was the first religious in the Congregation of Holy Cross to be canonized in 2010. READ “MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE” FROM 2011)
Loving Father,
Help us become your instruments of mercy.
Help us model our lives after the care and humility of Saint Andre Bessette.
He was illiterate and yet showed people how to live the Holy Word of God.
He was orphaned and yet welcomed people as brothers and sisters.
He was at first turned down for religious life and yet became our first saint.
He was frail in body and yet strong in his faith and courageous in his belief.
His local community marginalized him and yet he met nearly six hundred people a day.
He believed in Saint Joseph and his faith healed hundreds of people.
He rubbed the sick with oil and prayed for them during his sleepless nights.
He lived so simply and yet hundreds gathered to be with him in prayer.
He encouraged people to pray and confess their sins and realize God’s love.
He lived a full life until ninety-one even though his doctors thought he would die young.
He was patient for the building of Saint Joseph Oratory and he gave everything to God.
Saint Andre still baffles many in our religious community who are known for education because in simplicity he found God.
He educates us still by living a simple, prayerful life in service for others.
Saint Andre was not understood in his earthly life and may never be fully understood in his miracles and sainthood.
Gracious Father,
In this Year of Mercy, help us all claim our place on this earth to receive the love you have for us. Help us live for others and to die for our others who most need us.
We ask this in the name of Jesus, the Source of Mercy, who live forever and ever.
Amen
Saint Andre Bessette, pray for us.
Mater Dei Radio, 88.3 “In Person” from Monday January 4, 2016
Dina Marie, from 88.3 in Portland, OR interviewed me this morning for about ten minutes on the The Feast of the Epiphany.
Epiphany 2016
“Searching”
Conte sketch: Ronald Raab, CSC
Father of Mercy,
Draw us closer to the gift of Jesus, your Son.
Compel us in love to search for you, to search for the healing we all desire.
Give us in the Christmas Season the profound awareness that you remain with us always.
Encourage our families to unite when we drift apart.
Love us when we feel we cannot love ourselves.
Help us know that our lives matter when we are told we do not count.
Give us peace when the noise of anxiety overwhelms us.
Help us to be bearers of hope when we follow our addictions instead.
Send forth your Light when we walk in darkness of dread and fear.
Bring tenderness of spirit when we are hardened by hatred and neglect.
Open the door to your mercy when we would rather hold us to our sin.
Send us a new vision of prayer when our hearts a closed with self-righteousness.
Be the Light we follow even in our darkest of days.
Give us joy in the Christmas season because we are in need of knowing you are here.
Love us when we stray.
Bring us peace because we are afraid.
Enliven our spirits in this Christmas season to discover you always and everywhere.
Amen
Please know of my prayer for you in these beautiful Christmas days.
Fr. Ron
On The Margins – Matthew 2:1-12
Listen to “On the Margins”. This broadcast comes from Mater Dei Radio 88.3. We follow the path to the living Christ. We are searching for Jesus. We follow the light of wisdom. This feast invites us to ponder the image of the LIght of Christ in our world, for all people and nations. Epiphany of the Lord, Sunday January 3, 2016.
LISTEN NOW: CLICK HERE FOR THIS WEEK’S PROGRAM
Stream live On The Margins on KBVM 88.3FM on Saturdays at 3:45pm and Sundays at 8am.
Mary, Mother of God: A Yearlong Resolve Toward Mercy
“Silent Night”
Conte sketch: Ronald Raab, CSC
Mary, Mother of God
January 1, 2016
Pope Francis asks us to live out the seven corporal works of mercy and the seven spiritual works of mercy in this year of 2016. I invite you to make resolutions in this New Year around the themes of mercy.
What if we all resolved every day to make our lives more merciful? What if we offered our neighbor a second chance? What about visiting our overcrowded prisons? What about feeding hungry people? What if we stopped blaming people for the poverty in which people are steeped? What if we helped educate people about our faith? What if we welcomed people next to us in the pews of our churches rather than being angry that they took our spot in the parking lot? What if we reached out to a mother struggling to console her crying child? What if we forgave our fathers who psychologically and emotionally abused us? What if we stopped the grinding noise of shame in our own hearts?
Mercy is not about getting our act together so that God will forgive us. Mercy is not cleaning up our routines before we pray so that God will give us another chance. Mercy is not about getting our lives free from sin so that God will love us again. Mercy is not about not sinning so that we can be restored into the teaching of the Church. Mercy is none of these things. We do not save ourselves. Only God saves God’s people.
Mercy is coming to God absolutely vulnerable, broken and open, so that God may make a home within our sin. Mercy is about God reaching down to us in order to heal us so that we can walk beside people who are hurting, hungry, and thirsty or who are in prison. Mercy is God’s love made real within our hearts and in our actions toward people. We need God’s mercy so that we can look into the eyes of people without flinching, until we see the beauty of God’s love within others, until we recognize our selves in the eyes of the poor.
How about we all make an effort to begin our prayer each day asking for mercy in our world? Perhaps it will change our postures toward earthly peace, war, violence, guns, robberies, rapes and our ignorance about what people really face each day. How about if you started each day asking God for his merciful love?
So many people do not think that they are worthy of God’s love. So many people carry regrets, sin and shame with them for their entire lives. Perhaps this is the year to stop believing that you are unlovable in God’s eyes. Perhaps this is the year that you redefine or expand your image of God. Perhaps this is the year of love. Mary, Mother of God, pray for us.
What You Have
Here is a Christmas article from Ministry and Liturgy Magazine from 2011. You will notice there is also a pdf version.
Originally published by Ministry & Liturgy Magazine, October 2011
– PDF version –
I unlocked the red steel doors of our parish building last Christmas morning, noticing a special holiday silence on the streets. The business executives were safely tucked in the suburbs and the night clubbers were sleeping off a Christmas Eve drunk. Only the drug dealers were roaming the city streets in the early hours on Christmas morning. More people purchase illegal drugs during the holidays because people have to spend more time with their families, I guess. I did notice one thing as I unlocked the panic bar of one of the heavy doors. A man was sleeping next to the door near the corner of the building. He was covered with blankets to protect him from the Christmas rain. However, his face was uncovered. I did not recognize him and there was no reason to…
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Mater Dei Radio, 88.3 “In Person” from Monday December 28, 2015
Dina Marie, from 88.3 in Portland, OR interviewed me this morning for about ten minutes about the Feast of the Holy Family and the Christmas season.
Broken But Not Divided 