We Would Love
to Keep in Touch!

We are all filled with the Holy Spirit  

 

“When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim” (Acts 2:1-4).

Read more We are all filled with the Holy Spirit  

Have you Noticed?

(Trinity Sunday: Deuteronomy 4:32-40; Romans 8:14-17 ; Matthew 28:16-20 )

How many times have you thought of the Blessed Trinity in the last week? Let’s suppose you attended a Sunday Mass, recited the Rosary three times, and prayed Morning Prayer or Evening Prayer from the breviary once.

Read more Have you Noticed?

What is a Source of Easter Joy?

As believing Christians, at times it is difficult for us to get in touch with the experience and meaning of the mystery that we celebrate on the Feast of the Resurrection of Jesus. I’d like to share with you two other mysteries that might help us appreciate a little more the profound mystery of Easter.

The first mystery – Tintoretto moving from the Crucifixion to the Nativity

Several years ago, I visited the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and went to the exhibition entitled, “Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice.” Near the end of the exhibit, there was a special display of a large painting of a Nativity scene by Tintoretto (below) from about 1580.

Read more What is a Source of Easter Joy?

Come Closer

(3rd Sunday of Easter: Acts 3:13-19; 1 John 2:1-5; Luke 24:35-48)

Today’s title quotes Mary’s first words to the children at La Salette. She adds, “Don’t be afraid.” We recognize the pattern, in reverse, from the Scriptures.

Read more Come Closer

Bystanders No More

(Easter: Acts 10:34-43; Colossians 3:1-4 OR 1 Corinthians 5:6-8; John 20:1-9)

Holy Week can be experienced as a journey or, better still, a pilgrimage, to the empty tomb. The Commemoration of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday, and of his Passion on Good Friday, and especially the Easter Vigil are meant to renew, strengthen and intensify our faith.

Read more Bystanders No More

The tears of compassion which can heal our heart

Editor: Dan Collier was in our La Salette Seminary in Ipswich, Massachusetts for several years. He is now a pastor of a parish in Massachusetts and shares with us his homily from September 2013.

Ipswich 1stTour 040c MosaicLike the prophet Jeremiah, Mary weeps for her children; Mosaic in La Salette Chapel altar base, La Salette Shrine, Ipswich, MA (now closed)A reading from the prophet Jeremiah (8:18-9:1) which captures the prophet’s compassion for his poor, needy people:

My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick. Hark, the cry of my poor people from far and wide in the land: “Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not in her?” (“Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their foreign idols?”) “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?

O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people!

My seminary years with the La Salettes

Many years ago, when I was 17, I entered the Roman Catholic Seminary of the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette. The seminary was in Ipswich, on a beautiful piece of property. For about eight years I was in some way connected to this community of men.

These years were and remain a tremendous gift to me, a gift that allowed me – at a very critical moment of my life - to touch the healing and gracious hospitality of God. Through the everydayness of lives shared, - work, meals, prayers, mentoring – so many things were communicated to me. These men cared for me, challenged me, and formed me to serve and minister in the name of a God who longs to be in relationship with us, a God who pines for this relationship, and God who will go to any lengths to mend what is broken, to heal what has become fractured, and tenderly draw together that which has become separated.

Read more The tears of compassion which can heal our heart

Remember and Return

(1st Sunday of Lent: Genesis 9:8-15; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:12-15)

God’s covenant with Noah was accompanied by a sign, the rainbow. Its stated purpose is to keep God from forgetting his promise, “There shall not be another flood to devastate the earth.”

Ordinary signs point us in the direction of something ahead of us. The rainbow, and other signs of other covenants, do the opposite. They tell us to look back, to remember what God has done for his people, and especially why.

Read more Remember and Return

Titles

(2nd Ordinary Sunday: 1 Samuel 3:3-19; 1 Corinthians 6:13-20; John 1:35-42)


Do you have a title? La Salette Missionaries write MS after their name, and the La Salette Sisters SNDS. Some of you, our readers, surely have academic titles, or wear a name tag indicating your role and status in your place of work.

In the Bible, names often serve this purpose. Jesus tells Simon, “You will be called Cephas,” which means Peter and defines his role, his vocation. It would be interesting to speculate what name Jesus might give to each of us. One thing is certain: it would be both a blessing and an obligation.

Read more Titles

Where Faith Takes Us

(Holy Family: Genesis 15:1-6 & 21:1-3; Hebrews 11:8-19; Luke 2:22-40)

Faith is mentioned twenty-four times in Chapter 11 of the Letter to the Hebrews, almost always in the phrase, “by faith.” Today’s readings highlight the faith of Abraham and Sarah, and God’s promise of a family and descendants as numerous as the stars.

Read more Where Faith Takes Us

Worthy Wife, Worthy Faith

(33rd Ordinary Sunday: Proverbs 31:10-31; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6; Matthew 25:14-30)

The poem in praise of a worthy wife, eight verses in the Lectionary, is actually twenty-two verses long. Most of them describe her accomplishments.

But one verse stands out as different from the rest. Instead of saying what she does, it portrays who she is: “Charm is deceptive and beauty fleeting; the woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” Here as in many other places in the Book of Proverbs, we find the foundation of a worthy life, on which everything else is built.

Read more Worthy Wife, Worthy Faith

More Articles …