As we draw close to the Holy Season that will close our year, let’s welcome each final day as an extraordinary gift, grateful for the faith, hope, and love that sustain our lives.
Music: “Your Love” from “Once Upon A Time in the West” ” – by Ennio Morricone – performed by Hauser
For Your Reflection:
What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ?
What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?
Today, for your reflection, a poem I wrote decades go. I offer it today in memory of Judy Ward, RSM who passed away on September 27, 2025. Her life will be celebrated on October 2nd in a Mass of Christian Burialin the chapel at Mt. St. Mary, where Judy attended school, became a Sister of Mercy, and taught for many years.
Judy, a gifted artist, did so much to encourage me and to illustrate and promulgate my work. I will miss her generous kindness and her friendship.
October is a time when nature changes clothes. Leaves, like miniature volcanoes, flare up and die, ashes at the foot of a silent, seemingly immortal tree. Geese, having dawdled all summer in veiled expectation, suddenly leap into the clouds and disappear. These solemn miracles may incline us to consider our own impermanence and the gossamer phenomenon we call life.
Healing
Music: A Playlist of Autumn Music
For Your Reflection
What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ?
What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?
September has barely poked its nose through the door, but already we see signs of Autumn. A slight gold shimmers on the trees. Geese gather in noisy expectation. Early morning sheds its night veil in slower layers of magenta and blue. There have even been a few sweet nights when we can open the windows wide and sleep in the suggestively crisp air. All the signs are there — it is a new season – “The Season of Freshness”.
“Fresh” is a powerful word. Who can resist the crisply-aproned waiter suggesting, “Fresh ground pepper?” Who can ignore the aroma of fresh baked bread? Some of us even remember with appreciation the scent of linens fresh from our mother’s clothesline.
Let this beautiful season remind us that each day the Creator shakes out a fresh beginning for every one of us. With every radiant morning, the slate is clear with mercy. The opportunity to re-create the world awaits us. Our lives, our work, our relationships are the fresh bread of God’s hope for us. Within them, we are invited to reveal the powerful grace which runs just under the visibility of the ordinary. It whispers to us, “You are Beloved, and I want your life to be a fountain of joy.”
September is for fresh beginnings: a sparkling season, an unmarked semester, a turning of the garden, a clean page. It is nature’s way of saying forgiveness is possible, life is resilient, hope is eternal. Imagine September as the white-aproned waiter inviting you to freshness. At the Creator’s table, the tablecloth is clean and the sacred menu is forgiveness, hope, mercy and renewed beginnings. Don’t miss this opportunity to assess what needs refreshment in your life. Feast on September’s graces! They can be life-changing!
Music: September Song – Alexis Ffrench
For Your Reflection
What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ?
What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?
Like many of our immigrant ancestors, my early family was rather poor. They and their neighbors labored to put food on the table and to keep the house warm. I remember one neighbor in particular from my very early childhood. Widowed young and unskilled, she struggled to raise three children in a two-room house. My mother saw her devastation. Financially strapped herself, Mom would “hire” Rae about four times a year to help her house clean – – this rather than embarrass her with a direct handout.
Rae quietly and gratefully acknowledged my mother’s secret strategy. We would be rewarded with a pot of Rae’s famous “Pepper Pot Soup”. This was a poor person’s soup, made from scraps the butcher might otherwise discard. But, through her generous mutuality, Rae transformed it into a gourmet meal. She grew the spices for cooking in a little plot behind her house. I savored their scent which has never been quite repeated in my life.
I haven’t tasted Rae’s soup in nearly seventy years, but I can still savor the divine dimension of my mother’s generosity and of Rae’s gratitude. These women left me a glimpse of glory – an insight into how God sees, loves, and responds – both to our unspoken needs and our deliberate generosities.
1 pound honeycomb beef tripe
5 slices bacon, diced
3 medium leeks, chopped
2 medium green bell peppers, diced
1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped
½ cup chopped onion
½ cup chopped celery
2 quarts beef stock
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
½ teaspoon dried marjoram
½ teaspoon ground cloves (Optional)
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 large bay leaf
2 large carrots, diced
1 large potato, peeled and diced
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Music: A Little a This and That – Pete Seeger (Lyrics below)
My grandma, she can make a soup, With a little a’ this ‘n’ that. She can feed the whole sloop group, With a little a’ this ‘n’ that. Stone soup! You know the story. Stone soup! Who needs the glory? But with grandma cooking, no need to worry. Just a little a’ this ‘n’ that.
Grandma likes to make a garden grow, With a little a’ this ‘n’ that. But she likes to have the ground just so, With a little a’ this ‘n’ that. Not too loose and not too firm. In the spring, the ground’s all got to be turned. In the fall, lots of compost, to feed the worms, With a little a’ this ‘n’ that.
Grandma knows we can build a future, With a little a’ this ‘n’ that. And a few arguments never ever hurt ya, With a little a’ this ‘n’ that. True, this world’s in a helluva fix, And some say oil and water don’t mix. But they don’t know a salad-maker’s tricks, With a little a’ this ‘n’ that.
The world to come may be like a song, With a little a’ this ‘n’ that. To make ev’rybody want to sing along, With a little a’ this ‘n’ that. A little dissonance ain’t no sin, A little skylarking to give us all a grin. Who knows but God’s got a plan for the people to win, With a little a’ this ‘n’ that.
For Your Reflection
What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ?
What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?
Fickle March hesitates on the edge of Spring. It can’t quite decide: “Shall I wear my chilly or my warm personality today?” We too are still wearing our “March personalities”. Every morning, we say hopeful things to one another. “Getting warmer.“ “Hint of spring today.” But hidden in those cheery remarks is the memory of past March blizzards that buried us in a foot of crushed expectations.
Still, the fact is that, as you read this article, we have almost made it through another winter. Abundant, colorful life is ready to break through the cold brown barrenness. In the annual championship bout, April always KOs March!
This analogy should give us great hope for our lives. Our lives are “seasonal” too – full of chills and heat waves, fallow and fruitful cycles. Sometimes we find ourselves in a harsh, interminable winter. The hope of Spring – a sprig of new life – seems impossible. We feel frozen in a powerless situation.
But haven’t we all known people who, no matter what, live in their heart’s Spring? They understand the difference between healing and cure, between pleasure and joy, between possession and fulfillment. Even amid chilling burdens, a deep hope and a joyous freedom guide them through their winters.
It is so important for us to be aware of the power we have over another person’s life. The one encouraging word we offer may be that ray of hope that breaks through someone’s isolation. That one small, patient moment we muster in the face of frustration may be the only glimmer of color in a person’s otherwise bleak landscape.
When you were little and Aunt Polly asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”, wouldn’t she have been surprised if you had answered, “I think I’m gonna’ be a bearer of spring, a shower of hope, a sweet light after the winter.” But that is what you are!
This is Spring – this is your season! For your own sake and the sake of your dear ones, may everything in your lives warm and blossom.
Poetry: from Emily Dickinson
If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain; If I can ease one life the aching, Or cool one pain, Or help one fainting robin Unto his nest again, I shall not live in vain.
Music: Serenade to Spring – Secret Garden
For Your Reflection
What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ?
What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?
On March 6, 1984, a man named Martin Niemoeller died. He had been a German U-boat commander in WWI. After that war, he became a Lutheran pastor and initially supported Hitler. But as the years moved toward WWII, Niemoeller became more and more critical of Hitler. Arrested several times, he finally spent seven years in various concentration camps beginning in 1938. He was liberated from Dachau in 1945.
Martin Niemoeller wrote the following words:
“They came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. They came for the Socialists and trade unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. They came for the Jews but I was not a Jew, so I did not speak out. Then they came for me, and there was no one to speak for me.”
As the world deals with interminable war, terrorism, racism, and cloaked fascism, we should remember that true justice and peace always include BOTH understanding and standing up.
Music: Show Me How to Stand for Justice – Martin Leckebusch
And now, bless the God of all, who has done wondrous things on earth; Who fosters people’s growth from their mother’s womb, and fashions them according to his will! May he grant you joy of heart and may peace abide among you; May God’s goodness toward us endure to deliver us in our days. Sirach 50:22-24
Remain faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
Revelation 2:10
.In Luke 21, Jesus exhorts his disciples to remain faithful. Then he describes how fraught with difficulties that faithfulness will be: denouncement, imprisonment, false judgment, disavowal by family and friends, hatred, and even death. What is so terrifying about the Gospel that it evokes these responses in its enemies? What is so powerful about the Gospel that it will sustain its believers even through such trials?
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: I ask myself, “Have I ever really suffered anything for the sake of the Gospel”? What would that suffering look like? Would it not be setting aside my selfishness for the sake of the neighbor – even the unloved neighbor? If we dare to do that, we will surely suffer.
Prose: from Walter Bruggemann in “God’s Neighborly Economy”
“Who is my neighbor?”(Luke 10:29)
The Bible is unflinching and unambiguous in its identification of the neighbor: widow, orphan, immigrant, the poor, lepers, the blind, deaf, lame … all those without viable resources or reliable advocacy.
Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” Then he said to the crowd, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” Luke 12:13-15
We’ve all heard the all too true adage, “You can’t take it with you.” That’s the lesson in Jesus’s parable today. But the story conveys an even broader meaning. It is not only greed for possessions that waylays us, it is the distraction they cause from the true essence of life in God.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We ask for the courage and grace to focus our lives on God and God’s Creation. Within that focus, we will have a clearer understanding of what we truly need in life and what is simply a diversion.
Poetry: I Dream a World … – Langston Hughes
I dream a world where man No other man will scorn, Where love will bless the earth And peace its paths adorn I dream a world where all Will know sweet freedom's way, Where greed no longer saps the soul Nor avarice blights our day. A world I dream where black or white, Whatever race you be, Will share the bounties of the earth And every man is free, Where wretchedness will hang its head And joy, like a pearl, Attends the needs of all mankind- Of such I dream, my world!
Music: Mercedes Benz – Janis Joplin
Joplin’s rock song might move us to realize that, even in unrecognized greediness, we sometimes ask God for the wrong things.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him. In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved. Ephesians 1:3-6
(The readings I used for today’s reflection are for the Mass for St. Ignatius of Antioch who lived in the century after Jesus. He is not the same person as Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, who lived in the 15th century.)
The passage from Ephesians, so beautifully expressed, encapsulates the character of a true disciple: called by God to holiness, expressing gratitude through a life of praise and mercy.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We pray to receive God’s blessing and call with grateful hearts, and to live a life reflecting God’s Mercy.
Quote: from Ignatius of Antioch
We recognize a tree by its fruit, and we ought to be able to recognize a Christian by his action. The fruit of faith should be evident in our lives, for being a Christian is more than making sound professions of faith. It should reveal itself in practical and visible ways. Indeed it is better to keep quiet about our beliefs, and live them out, than to talk eloquently about what we believe, but fail to live by it.
Lavish Mercy 