OPreach
Dominican Preaching through Word and Image
All Souls Day – A Feast of Hope
I love the second reading for this wonderful feast from Romans 5:5-11:
Sisters and brothers, Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
May our hope be enkindled by all the souls – saints and sinners (which all of us are at some time or another) – to pass this hope on to others.
We Are All Saints – Children of God
On the Feast of All Saints we are reminded that we are all children of God.
Beloved: See what love God has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are . . . We are God’s children now, what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed, we shall be like Christ, for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:1-3).
Kindness . . . Foundational to All Spiritual Traditions
The Buddha sad,
If you propose to speak, always ask yourself, is it true, is it necessary, is it kind.
So very similar to Paul’s words in his letter to the Ephesians:
Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. (Ephesians 4:15)
Weekly Photo Challenge: Foreign
We conveniently forget what we have been taught. For we read in Deuteronomy 10:19:
So you, too, must show love to foreigners, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land.”
And our President Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said,
Remember, remember always, that all of us…are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.
So why do we refuse to enact compassionate immigration reform?! As Bishop James Tamayo of Laredo said in a Statement at the Justice for Immigrants Press Conference in 2005,
We can no longer accept a situation in which some public officials and members of our communities scapegoat immigrants at the same time our nation benefits from their labor. We can no longer accept a status quo in which migrants are compelled to risk their lives in order to support their families. We can no longer accept a reality in which migrants fill jobs critical to Americans and U.S. employers without receiving appropriate wages and benefits. We can no longer tolerate the death of human beings in the desert.
Please join with us, the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael, and others in our Stance for Compassionate Immigration Reform.
If You Were Healed of Blindness . . .
If you were healed of blindness, what would you be amazed by?
We read in Sunday’s Gospel reading from Mark 10:46-52
As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging. On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth,
he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me.”
Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.”
He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.
Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want me to do for you?”
The blind man replied to him, “Master, I want to see.” Jesus told him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.
Where Do You Find God?
In Saturday’s Responsorial Psalm (Psalm 122), the psalmist declares:
I rejoiced because they said to me, ‘We will go up to the house of the Lord.'”
We so readily recognize churches and cathedrals as houses of God. But where might we find God besides in buildings of wood and stone? Are there places where we would find God more often than our weekly trip to church? Are there places that God might feel more comfortable? Places that are not so unapproachable?
The Earth, the Seas, the Rivers, the People . . . are God’s
Friday’s Responsorial Psalm is from Psalm 24.
The Lord’s are the earth and its fullnes;
the world and those who dwell in it.
For God founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
Wisdom from Willie Nelson
When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.
– Willie Nelson
Drawing Water with Joy
Wednesday’s Responsorial Psalm is from one of the Canticles of Isaiah (Isaiah 12:2-6)
God is indeed my savior; I am confident and unafraid.
My strength and my courage is God, who has been my savior.
With joy will you draw water from the wells of salvation.”
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