A message from Father Pete

For Sunday, April 6, 2025 Isaiah 43:16-21, Philippians 3:8-14, John 8:1-11 Last week we celebrated Laetare Sunday. How wonderful it is to realize that God loves everyone in a special way, all the time — no matter how we feel about ourselves. We heard about the Prodigal Son and all of us, at least partially, can identify with the younger son or the older son. Why? So often we have negative feelings about ourselves: I wish I could have … I just never worked on my gifts … I felt I could just not do it … I’m not good enough … why me, Lord … I’m just not worthy of Your love and goodness to me. Why do I do that? Why do I feel that way? I just tear myself down. God never feels that way toward me, you, or anyone. I am His special creation — no matter where He placed me in this world, He is constantly with me. He could have placed me here to be a help and example for a person who is so negative that they can’t see God’s love or His gifts in themselves. Or God placed that person in my life so I...

For Sunday, March 30, 2025 Joshua 5:9-12; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 We are waiting for Lent: It is a time to slow ourselves down to see how we are living in conformity to God’s commands … how we are living and loving in our relationships … how we are being instruments of God’s graces, kindnesses and gifts as we live each day with our eyes on heaven. To do this we have taken on Lenten disciplines along with different “varieties of giving up and sacrifices” to help us be in touch with God’s love and care for us. Today in the midst of Lent, the readings point to our rejoicing and provide us reason for our thankfulness. This is Laetare Sunday which echoes the all-inclusive and sweeping goodness of God. David expresses this so completely in the response to Psalm 34: “I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall be always in my mouth.” [Psalm 34:2] The Psalmist reminds us of being rescued from our problems and difficulties, feeling even defenseless and not knowing whe...

For Sunday, March 23, 2025 Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15; 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12; Luke 13:1-9 I have been asked this question a few times: “Tell me what your God is like. Is He kind, merciful, forgiving, rude, vengeful? What is He like?” Have you ever been asked this? I think this is a great question not to avoid — not to respond, “I don’t know,” or dismiss it by saying, “It's too difficult, I’m not a theologian” — or saying, “That is way above my pay grade.” Could the question be from God Himself, encouraging me to reflect on how big God has been to me? How He rescued me from deep, troubling situations I found myself in? Am I afraid to share my encounters with God? In reflecting on today’s readings, we see one major theme emerging: the incomprehensibility of God. We see this in Exodus where Moses encounters God’s voice from the area of the burning bush, calling him: Moses, Moses … take off your sandals … this is holy ground. Then the voice reveals His identity: “I am the God of yo...

For Sunday, March 16, 2025 Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 9:28-36 What was the closest experience in your life where you got a sense of God, the Almighty? A moving experience which was filled with so much but could be reduced to a moment of being with ... understanding ... the height and depth of beauty — love itself? Think on this! How long did it last? Was it so fleeting that it came and was gone in a moment? Yet that “moment” was so special that you still can describe every amazing part in detail. So many have shared these moments. I had a young girl tell me she was at her dying grandmother’s bedside and saw her pain and prayed to God to take it away. She felt bad asking God to let her die, but then there was a peace that flowed through her. I told her that was God, to which she replied, “I know.” Sadness to peace. Three ladies on a Holy Land Pilgrimage were on the platform at Transfiguration Mountain and put their hands through a trap door to touch the rock bel...

For Sunday, March 9, 2025 Deuteronomy 26:4-10, Romans 10:8-13, Luke 4:1-13 One of the fallacies of Lent is that it is a time when I have to do something … I have to restore my relationship with God. It’s all about me, and God is watching and hopefully affirming what I am doing. What I am giving up? Well, what is God doing? Is my life and living my life all about me? OR: Do I live my life in gratitude for all God has done for me as He keeps me on the “straight and narrow” — while leading me and helping me get to heaven, which is totally impossible if I'm left to my own initiatives? In the Deuteronomy text, the Israelites have been wandering in the desert for 40 years and they stand at the edge of the promised land, ready to enter. They are to observe all the regulations of the Covenant as to what to pray ... and how to tithe a portion of the first fruits of the harvests in gratitude for God’s role in rescuing them from their years of slavery at the hands of the Pharaohs and the Egy...

For Sunday, March 2, 2025 Sirach 27:4-7, 1 Corinthians 15:54-58, Luke 6:39-45 When I look in the mirror, what do I see? Do I see a person I like? Do I see a person I am uncomfortable with? Do I wonder about what I see? Do I feel that I am in need of changing? Do I need a Lenten purging of the me I don’t like? I need to ask why and how I got off track from the person I need to be — that God created me to be. There are good, reflective questions that we need to unpack, and our readings help us do this. The passage from Sirach uses three analogies from the arts and primitive technology. Throughout the ages humanity applies its conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals that are needed to enhance life and living — the advancement of skills that make “life is worth living” (the title of Bishop Fulton Sheen’s TV program from long ago). The first analogy is a sieve, which is like a colander. It sorts out larger, dead husks or grains to uncover the soft, living grain used to make bread. ...

For Sunday, February 23, 2025 1 Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23; 1 Corinthians 15:45-49; Luke 6:27-38   Ten days before Ash Wednesday, today’s readings bring us some first-class reflective points. Often I start out with: What am I going to do this Lent? We assemble so many different devotions ... prayer summaries ... ways to get closer to the Lord. We hope and pray that we are on the right path to be closer to the Lord, who loves us just the way we are and wants us to know how close the Father, Jesus and the Spirit are with us each day — loving us and leading us. Today the schooling of the disciples continues. We seldom reflect that Jesus is their teacher. Like ours, their schooling is intent on changing the way we think as well as the way we act. One area we shy away from and need help with is perhaps the most difficult lesson: forgiving those we consider our enemies ... those who have wronged us . This conjures feelings within us — feelings of getting even, revenge, hurting, ang...