October 27, 2024

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

For Francis, our Pope, and ___, our Bishop. May our leaders seek the face of Christ Jesus. May their eyes weep for inequality and may they set their sights on justice for all people.

We pray to the Lord.

For us who are blind to the needs of others. May our eyes gaze upon people living in tents and surviving on streets. May we see the hunger of our neighbors and help restore a vision of evenhandedness for people under heaven.

We pray to the Lord.

For sinners longing for new life. May we set our sights on God’s compassionate care for all who carry division in their hearts. May our sin turn into joy in our vision of Christ’s redeeming mercy.

We pray to the Lord.

For all who struggle with diminished eyesight. May our inner vision become a source of joy as we see the presence of Christ within our hearts. May hope be restored to all who are physically and spiritually blind.

We pray to the Lord.

For our children and their children. May we learn to see the gifts and talents of our next generations in faith. May we support the young and encourage their skill, their abilities, their futures.

We pray to the Lord.

For our nation in this election season. May we see clearly the needs of our abandoned poor and people who long for the basics of life. May integrity be lived in every community in our nation.

We pray to the Lord.

For people whom we overlook. May we truly see our loved ones with mental anguish, with physical and emotional disabilities, with different ideas and dreams. May our blindness be transformed into clear sight.

We pray to the Lord.

For people in need of change. May we help people who need a second chance in life. May we walk side by side with people who most need our care and concern.

We pray to the Lord.

For our beloved dead. May all people who struggled in the dying process find rest in the eternal presence of Christ Jesus.

We pray to the Lord.

CLICK here to read today’s scriptures

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Sent to Ease the Burdens

Some years ago, twenty women snuggled together around our church building one night because a local shelter had filled up early. At dawn, I went outside while they collected their belongings to tell them of our outreach resources. One woman quickly collected her possessions around her body, at first fearing my presence. She then blurted out at me, “Do you mean you are here to say something kind to us?”

Her fearful response reminds me of what the seventy-two must have encountered along the way. People needed time to listen and trust good news. They needed time to let go of fear that the new disciples might be robbers in the night or pretenders of good. Jesus sent the seventy-two with few possessions so they would have credibility among people who had few belongings and few defenses. 

We still witness to good even when darkness, war, poverty, and injustice all appear in lamb’s clothing. Love is easily lost under bright lights of hatred and evil ways. We are sent to ease the burdens of those who are weary, the houseless and jailed. We are sent among children in despair because of abuse and neglect, young-ones who have grown deaf to adults with good news.

Luke’s good news of Jesus Christ built a community of believers from those huddled against loss, unkindness, and the reality of poverty. Jesus Christ whispers in our ears to live in love–and Luke still shows us the beauty of God’s Kingdom on earth.       

Fr. Ronald Patrick Raab

Fr. Ronald Patrick Raab, CSC serves as religious superior at Holy Cross House, a medical and retirement facility at Notre Dame, Indiana. He is a retreat director, award-winning author, and visual artist. Learn more at ronaldraab.com.

I am grateful for the invitation to write for Give Us This Day, published by Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN.

CLICK HERE to read my latest article from our Holy Cross Newsletter, October 2024.

CLICK HERE to read my latest article from The Priest Magazine, November 2024, published by Our Sunday Visitor, Fort Wayne, Indiana.

October 20, 2024

Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

For Francis, our Pope, and ___, our Bishop. May they lead with humble service for the common good. May they bask in God’s tenderness and show us the way to the Father’s love.

We pray to the Lord.

For people who serve with faithfulness. May we serve the well-being of our neighbors. May our actions be more than satisfying our own needs. May God transform us in the dying and rising of Christ Jesus.

We pray to the Lord.  

For the future of our planet. May we become servant leaders toward the welfare of our earth. May we work diligently for sufficient food, clean water, and resources for our next generation.

We pray to the Lord.

For people struggling for a healthier life.  May pain ease and our spirits rejoice in Jesus Christ. May our lives surrender to the healing remedy of God.

We pray to the Lord.

For people seeking baptism next Easter. May we seek the baptism of mercy in the waters of conversion. May we live our commitments by sharing the cup of suffering with all humanity.

We pray to the Lord.

For all who seek shelter and security. May we provide sufficient housing for people who live on streets and in deep woods. May our shelters claim our families lost by poverty.

We pray to the Lord.

For our nation in this election season. May we all seek the common good and may our future be on the solid ground of love, compassion and kindness.

We pray to the Lord.

For all who are ill. For healing among our relatives and friends. May our bodies know God’s tender care.

We pray to the Lord.

For our loved ones who have died. May they live now in the eternal presence of Christ Jesus.

We pray to the Lord.

CLICK HERE to read today’s scriptures

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October 13, 2024

Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

For Francis, our Pope, and ___, our bishop. May they speak aloud the questions of us. May they discover hope for our day and comfort for every community.

We pray to the Lord.

For those who carry the wounds of war. May scars of memory give way to a threshold of love. May the injured in body and spirit be lifted in grace and assured peace.

We pray to the Lord.

For the young who ask enormous questions. May we carry our questions in gentleness and learn to live out the answers with love and mercy.

We pray to the Lord.

For people faced with impossible burdens. May we learn to carry the cross of ill health, mental anguish, and homelessness with hope for our future. May we discover the possibility of God’s presence and concern.

We pray to the Lord.

For people who search for wisdom. May all facing difficult decisions, lonely times, fragile relationships find the deep and powerful love of God. May wisdom prevail in our longing.

We pray to the Lord.

For our children who teach us how to live. May we seek awe and innocence in our prayer and a deeper dependence on God. May we learn to listen with patience and integrity.

We pray to the Lord.

For people facing loss of jobs, homelands and resources because of natural disasters and tragedies. May we walk with others along paths of healing. May wisdom find a home in us.

We pray to the Lord.

For people who seek healing in their grief. May all who carry burdens of ill health be given new chances of hope, love and tenderness.

We pray to the Lord.

For our loved ones who have died. May we rejoice among those who now see Christ for all eternity.

We pray to the Lord. 

CLICK HERE to read today’s scriptures

CLICK HERE to listen to today’s reflection

Saint Francis of Assisi challenges us to hold on to life with gentleness. The sacredness of all life is observed among the birds of the air, the sea creatures, and the beauty of our faces. Our work toward caring for all creation begins in prayer. We surrender to such beauty so that God’s face may be revealed in our world. We seek the Kingdom of Heaven even in the chaos of how we have treated our earth. We surrender to the joy of God’s Kingdom, since God desires us to create our earthly home in reflection of what is to come in heaven.

We are not creators of the earth. We do not own our environment. We cannot possess its complexities or fully comprehend the interdependence of all life. All life comes from God.  Our place is to bask in the joy of the earth and find our ways to sustain life.

In this collage, I use the juxtaposition of trash and the beauty of zebras to illustrate how we either share in our earth’s future or help to diminish our resources. Saint Francis of Assisi may help us understand our place upon the earth and to honestly care for everything that keeps us alive. This litany reflects on the gift of water as miracle to renew our generations.

Saint Francis of Assisi: Inspire Our Praise to God Among Droplets and Seas

From dew drops on spring grass…From deep wells of drinking water…From pools of rain on country roads…From blue seas and rocky shorelines…From rain-soaked clothes on children at play…

From droughts and storm flooding…From melting snow to high blizzard drifts along a fence…From a drinking fountain near the school gym…From bottled water carried in a brief case…  

From dams that hold back spring flooding…From fountains in the town square…From forest streams creating their own paths…From country lakes where children learn to swim…From youth drinking from a hose in summer shade…From filling a carafe with cool water from a tap for first morning coffee…

From animals corralling their young aside a spring stream…From a barefoot mother balancing water jars on her shoulders…From rushing mountain streams melting into spring…From reservoirs relinquishing their levels in summer heat…

From our plastics washing ashore along powerless countries…From trash heaps that keep creatures from sipping or surviving…From factories pumping waste into streams…From rivers that flow into unknown places that silence our conscience …From Zebras searching for clean drink…From dirty waters that reveal our uncaring stripes…

From initiating waters that flow at baptism…From sprinkles of baptismal renewal at Easter Masses…From baptismal fonts where water and Trinity merge…From the droplets of holy water that mark our gravesite…   

Amen