John Charles Raab, my only brother, died unexpectedly this evening at his home in Edwardsburg, Michigan. He was 74. God give him peace.

Sunday September 4, 2022

Creating a scaffolding around the human heart in order to follow Jesus Christ takes a lifetime. For the structures created in grace are not of human making. The structures consist of becoming human, of knowing who we are in God and cooperating with God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness.

The scaffolding that surrounds our life plan must consist of deep faith in Jesus Christ. We are not just ragtag followers of a do-gooder. We become a reflection of his passion, death, and resurrection. The gift that holds our hearts in place no matter our fear, our panic or our loss, is becoming one with him in his loss and in his new life. If we take our faith seriously, then we will be able to reject what is not good for us and live in the freedom of God’s incredible love. This love may even take us beyond relationships with brother or sister.

The structures that hold our hearts in place consist of profound prayer, loving service to others, and a deep longing for our own lives to know who we are and whose we are. Many human events and circumstances get in our way. They tear down the hope that secures us. These patterns of addiction, false searching, people pleasing, and depression because of fear, shred the structures of love that hold us together.

In Luke 14:25-33, we come to understand that God’s love creates our lives from the beginning. The structure of God’s plan is ever before us. We live not in creating our own journey, but finally becoming the people we are meant to become in his name. Jesus Christ creates a scaffolding of love within us, the basic structure that constantly is at work in us to bring about the kingdom on earth. With God’s support and love in place, we will never be lost, we will never build a false hope within, and we will maintain the love that will finally bring us home.

God give you peace.

Ron

August 28, 2022

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Ronald Raab, CSC

Prayers of the Faithful/Reflection

O God, offer us, your followers, food that will last. Do not delay to feed us with courage as we witness in our day the many changes within the church. Feed us as we face derision. Feed us as we ache to satisfy the many factions in our pews. Feed us as we wait for unity. Feed us because we cannot feed ourselves. Help us to know the food of heaven is here on earth. Help us to taste such a mystery this day.

O God, you invite us to your banquet. You invite us as we are, lonely, emotionally crippled, and sometimes spiritually asleep. You invite us when we resist, you encourage us when we are lost. You offer us love when we feel so very alone. We know your banquet is the place of nourishment, yet so often we want to turn away or go back to bed. Restore your vision of community within us in this time on earth when individuality is our only food. Help us envision the day when your food becomes a reality on earth when we finally become your people, broken open in love, unified with love, and given to others to serve the least among us.  

O God, instill within us a new humility. True humbleness is lost on us these days when our sense of entitlement is our motivation. Push aside our pride, tidy up our conscience, sturdy our self-esteem, but most of all, allow us to come before you knowing you are the source of life. We can do nothing without you. Restore humility within us, not the fake sense of humility that we think shrinks us, but the true and beautiful reality that guides us to you. Help our children come to you when their lives don’t turn out as they plan. Help our elderly find you when ill- health and discouragement settles into their bones. Humility does not dirty our gifts. The holy humility in you changes us when we finally know we can’t live this life on our own. Humility is finally that grace when we fully realize we live only in you.

O God, come to us and welcome us to your table. Your food is not just to satisfy our souls. Your food challenges us. Your food gives us purpose on earth and heals the darkest places of our lives. Your food is nourishment we cannot discover in a counselor’s office or in a self-help book. Your food has power beyond our imagining to heal the most self-sufficient and the addicted. Your food is sheer mystery. Your food invites us to view our lives differently. Your food connects us to our deepest selves so we can serve you unreservedly. Your food does not end but is constantly broken for the life of all believers. Your food is not stingy. Your food spreads hope when we finally understand that we are hungrier than we first imagined. Your food is sacred Word. Your food is living Sacrament. Around your table we find not just our friends but the diversity of humanity singing one song, a hymn of eternal love.

O God, invite us to be seated among those who challenge us. We accept your invitation to enjoy the banquet. When we feed on self-pride, invite us to sit next to those who struggle with mental anguish and the effects of being sexually abused as children. We shall find life among those who have searched for deep meaning and purpose. When we find pride in our accomplishments, seat us among people who rely on you for their creativity and daily work. Then we will know we can do nothing without you when we hear people with genuine faith. When we live in pretense and false-power, seat us next the truly wise and most humble. It is at your banquet where you teach us the meaning of real nourishment. It is feeding among the humble where we can finally be hungry for the things that matter.

O God, give us you alone in our hunger. Feed us in your kindness. Offer us the food of your presence and the hope of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection. Your banquet is bounty. Your banquet is our constant home. Your banquet leads us home to you. It is our honor to dine with you.

August 21, 2022

Luke 13:22-30

Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

Prayers of the Faithful as Reflection

My God, I am not sure if I am in the line that leads to your grace. Not sure if my number is first or last. Yet, I know you are with me even in times of unrest and uncertainty. The door seems heavy to your love. Open your concern for me and for the world. So, I beg you to be here as I prop open the door with my foot and bruised heart.  

My God, I know others who come first. So, I beg you, to fill the arms of hungry people with the bounty of your love and tenderness. The hungry need food, but most of all your grace to sustain them in times of spiritual starvation when their hearts and relationships are unruly.

My God, I am not sure how the door opens to you or on which side of the door we all stand. I reach for the doorknob today and ask you to settle our disputes as a nation. Erase the horrific boundaries that rip us apart, that keep us from the common good. I ask that a new door to people’s needs be open to us, especially our politicians, so that we may firmly plant our lives on this soil in hope for housing, food and healthcare. I just want you to open whatever separates us and let your grace flow upon our hearts.

My God, I beg you to put out the flames of hatred on our streets. We are restless because our lives feel unsafe. We don’t know where our future will take us. We feel powerless and unfulfilled. We are torn apart by the technology we thought would bring us together. We need you to encounter our hearts again. We need the open door to one another so we may see each other’s eyes. I know this is the doorway to peace. We need it today.

My God, again I don’t know if I am first or last. Yet, I know we all long for your mercy. We don’t need to prove ourselves. We get lost because we think we don’t deserve your presence. I can’t speak for everyone, but I can lift up to you those I encounter with mental anguish who can’t speak for themselves. I can lift up to you those in the darkness of depression, those who spend their days behind closed draperies in cramped rooms. Open doors that we least expect because so many of your people hurt in illness and disease. Help us all work for that day when love fills the church.

My God, there are great divisions among families. Some shoulders are weighed down with grief and loss. Other people lift clenched fists toward those they love because of past hurts and unfulfilled dreams. Some people go to work on the same assembly line as yesterday. Some of our children start college this year. We stand in the openness of your grace because you made us in order to believe in you. Help us push open the heavy door of loss so we may see you face to face.

My God, we long for a peaceful place to stand and a place of renewal for our lives upon the earth. The planet needs you. Floods wipe away our possessions. Fires destroy our dreams. Droughts keep us hungry. When will the door of reality open for us, Lord? When will we finally know we need you? For you have created all of life and the planet upon which we sleep.  

My God, we know we shall be at home with you after this life. We know we shall be first in your care when we take our final breath. Open the door today to those who have journeyed to you, our ancestors in faith. Open the door and do not hesitate on the day we knock; on the day of our death.

So, Lord, we push and pull and rip off the hinges of the door that leads to you. Help us to seek you until our prayers complete. Lord, open the door for us. Amen

CLICK here to read my latest article in The Priest Magazine.

The Stations of the Cross in Atonement for Abuse and the Healing of All. CLICK here to order

Psalm 143: Response: At daybreak, be merciful to me, O Lord.

In the morning let me know your love

for I put my trust in you.

Make me know the way I should walk;

to you I lift up my soul.

CLICK here to read an article in The Catholic Herald on the Centennial of Sacred Heart Church, Colorado Springs, CO.

Monday August 15, 2022

Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Dear Followers of Jesus,

In Luke 1:39-56, Mary, pregnant with Jesus, encounters Elizabeth who is pregnant with John. Even the two unborn children seem to greet each other. This communion of love offers us a glimpse of the beauty of Mary’s life and fidelity.

God desires communion with us and we desire communion with God. In Mary’s, “yes”, she remains open to receive God and she holds in her heart all the she longs for. She maintains the love and promise of God given to her as a young girl.

In her communion with Elizbeth, Mary speaks the words of a prophet. Mary declares from her young lips that God scatters the proud in their conceit. He casts down the mighty from their thrones. He lifts up the lowly. The hungry are fed with good things and the rich are sent empty away.

Mary held in her heart all that was important for her entire life. Her prophetic witness to God was manifest in her heart, in her willingness to bear a son and care for him until death. Mary knew God’s desire for her and for the world.

We are called to do the same. We celebrate Mary’s Assumption this day because we understand that her heart held God’s desire for her and for us. She was the first to receive the promise of her Son, that heaven would be open to us all.

We are challenged to hold what is most important within our hearts. We are being formed as prophets since we know Jesus Christ. We desire communion with Him. We desire all that is good for the world and for our wellbeing. We can’t forget our witness to God’s fidelity toward us. We can’t forget his love for us under heaven. Mary challenges us not to forget and to live our lives as bearers of such a mystery, that Jesus Christ died and rose to save all people.

 He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.

Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr, 1894-1941

This is a crude finger painting. It is meant to be incomplete and simple because there is no easy way to interpret this man’s faith, life and death. This Polish Franciscan priest died in Auschwitz on this day in 1941.

Crown: The red crown was given to him in a vision when he was 12 years old. He had a vision of Mary who presented him with two crowns, one white that would become his reward in heaven, then a red crown, representing his martyrdom. He accepted both crowns from Mary, the Mother of God. 

Mary, the Mother of God: Mary’s appearance to Maximilian gave him purpose in life. Notice how the blue beads of the rosary co-exist and even blend into the barbed wire. I must believe that the painful pieces of wire in the concentration camp became a rhythm of prayer for him. The wire knots of the fence became a sequence of prayer so that he could keep his faith alive. As the artist, I hold on to this notion. 

The brown shirt: Fr. Kolbe was a Franciscan priest. He dedicated his life to the proclamation of the gospel; the passion, death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. The red mark represents the martyr of martyrs, Jesus. 

The prisoner uniform: At the same time, he was a prisoner and his number was, 16670.

The drops of blood on his face: There were ten people put to death by lethal injection. The blood stains represent those who died with him. The blood comes from the martyrs crown. He took the place of a man who had a wife and children. That man was then present at this canonization in 1982. 

The green background: The green background represents hope for the people who died and hope for the people who lived through such anguish and suffering. The green backdrop invites us all into our own suffering and the realization that “everything will be all right.” I believe this message is the key to his priesthood. I know it is the eternal message of my own priesthood. 

The gold halo: Maximilian’s halo is hope to us all, that our faith in Jesus, in the suffering of this world, leads us safely home. 

Sunday August 14, 2022

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dear Followers of Jesus,

In Luke 12:49-53, Jesus desires us to live in the fire of his passion for the world. He invites us to know within our hearts the profound love of God. Love sparks hope in people who have lost their way. The fire Jesus describes is the continuation of the prophetic witness of forgiveness, mercy, love and hope for all people. This fire is found in suffering, in anguish, and in change. We are initiated into this fire through our connection to Jesus Christ in our baptism.

In these past few weeks, I have had the opportunity to speak with friends across our nation. Many of these conversations have stirred my heart. I have heard about recent divorces, ill children, bouts of depression, changes in relationships, questions about faith, disillusionment about church and participating in local parishes. Some people have given up on prayer and seeking a spiritual life. We seem to be at a time of great change, both good and extremely challenging.

The fire Jesus desires is his life within us. When change overwhelms us, we so often squelch the remedy for our unstable hearts. We ignore the relationship with God that can save our souls, restore our perspectives, and give us courage when life is really difficult. We give up because Jesus seems so distant when violence prevails and friends die unexpectedly. We give up seeking the intimacy with God when busyness pushes in on us, when we think we can control our days and relationships.

Jesus desires us to live in the center of his fire. His compassion for us is not diminished by our disappointments or failures. I invite you to rest in the flame of love this day. Open your heart to Jesus’ potential within you. Allow the flame of goodness to take root in your heart. Jesus will heal your perspectives of doubt and failure. Jesus will ignite your ability to live and serve. Justice begins with the flame of Jesus’ love within each of us.  

I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!

God give you peace,

Ron