23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Many people find confrontation and conflict difficult to handle. So, we should pay close attention to today’s readings because they all focus on our responsibility to confront people who have sinned against us and who have sinned against other people. Not only are we supposed to confront them, we are supposed to win them over. God, speaking through Ezekiel in today’s first reading (Ez 33: 7 – 9) makes the point clearly, if “you do not speak out to dissuade the wicked from his way, the wicked shall die for his guilt, but I will hold you responsible for his death.” However, “if you warn the wicked, trying to turn him from his way, and he refuses to turn from his way, he shall die for his guilt, but you shall save yourself.” Ezekiel and all the prophets took God at his word and spent their lives admonishing the Children of Israel for their wicked ways. This made the prophets immensely unpopular particularly with people in power and they suffered deadly hostility.

The Eighteenth Chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel is sometimes called “The ecclesial discourse” or Dissertation on the Church. It presents us with a Christian code of ethical practice. The section we hear today, verses 15 – 20, outlines a grievance process we should follow when someone does something wrong. The object of this process is not to abuse, ridicule or humiliate our sisters and brothers in faith. Rather, the purpose is to bring them back into God’s loving community. In the Jerusalem Bible translation St. Matthew tells us “If your brother does something wrong, go and have it out with him alone, between your two selves.” If that does not work, “take one or two others along with you.” And, if that does not work, take the issue “to the community” and let the community decide how to handle the situation.

The challenge in following this process is doing it in the right spirit. St. Paul tells us in Romans 13:10, that “love is the fulfillment of the law.” And in Colossians 3: 12 – 15 he says, “Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body.”

Father in heaven,

The perfection of justice is found in your love

And all mankind is in need of your law.

Help us to find this love in each other

That justice may be attained

Through obedience to your law.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen

My Child, You're Not Alone

At times like these, it’s hard to find the right words to say

And I know that words alone won’t take the pain away
But, I know a man who sits high and looks low
And He is saying, “My child, you’re not alone.”

He is saying, “I love you and I am concerned about you
And all the pain and hurt that you are going through,”
He is saying, “Lean on me. I will be your comfort through this time
And although it’s dark now, the sun again will shine.

Even though it’s hard to see through tears that you now cry,
Just know that there will come a day when your tears He will dry
And though words alone won’t ease the pain that you now feel,
Just know that in time, your heart, He will heal.

I pray that God will give you peace and strength in your heart
As He holds you in his arms, and from you, He won’t depart
May you always be encouraged, may you ever hold on
And remember, “My child, you’re not alone.”

~ By Johnny V Chandler

The Size of Our Hearts

God puts us into this world with huge hearts. The human heart in itself, when not closed off by fear, wound, and paranoia, is the antithesis of pettiness. There’s nothing small about the human heart.

The early Church Fathers taught that each of us has two hearts, two souls.

In each person, they affirmed, there is a small, petty heart, a pusilla anima. This is the heart that we operate out of when we are not at our best. This is the heart within which we feel our wounds, are chronically irritated and angry, the heart within which we feel the unfairness of life, the heart within which we sense others as a threat, the heart within which we feel envy and bitterness, and the heart within which greed, lust, and selfishness break through.

But the Church Fathers taught that inside of each of us there was also another heart, a magna anima, a huge, deep, big, generous, and noble heart. This is the heart within which we feel empathy and compassion, where we are enflamed with noble ideals. This is the heart where we inchoately feel God’s presence in faith and hope and are able to move out to others in charity and forgiveness. Inside each of us, sadly often buried under suffocating wounds that keep if far from the surface, lies the heart of a saint, bursting to get out.

John of the Cross says the most effective way to move towards healing is not by focusing on the moral and spiritual areas within which we particularly struggle.

For him, we heal and grow and eventually “cauterize” our faults by fanning the flames of what is already virtuous, best, inside us. As we fan our virtues to full flame, those fires eventually burn out our selfishness and our wounds.

Our virtues, when fanned to full-flame, leave no room inside us for pettiness and small-heartedness.

Fanning what’s highest in us eventually moves us more and more towards living out of our big hearts rather than petty hearts.

~ Ron Rolheiser, OMI

Resentment

When anger has no outlet it can morph into resentment and carries the potential to cause great turmoil.

Anger, when channeled into the pursuit of change, can be a useful tool in our emotional palette. Anger is experienced by most people, some more than others. It is when anger has no outlet and morphs into resentment that it carries with it the potential to cause great turmoil. Allowing us to assign blame for the pain we are feeling, thereby easing it, resentment tends to smolder relentlessly just below the surface of our awareness, eroding our peace of mind. The target of our resentment grows ever more wicked in our minds and we rue the day we first encountered them. But resentment is merely another hue on the emotional palette and therefore within the realm of our conscious control. We can choose to let go of our resentment and to move on with our lives, no matter how painful the event that incited it.

Hanging onto resentment in our hearts does not serve us in any way. Successfully divesting ourselves of resentful feelings can be difficult, however, because doing so forces us to mentally and emotionally confront the original source of anger. When we cease assigning blame, we realize that our need to hold someone or something responsible for our feelings has harmed us. We thought we were coping with our hurt when in fact we were holding onto that hurt with a vice grip. To release resentment, we must shift our attention from those we resent back toward ourselves by thinking of our own needs. Performing a short ceremony can help you quell resentful feelings by giving tangible form to your emotions. You may want to write down your feelings and then burn the paper and close your ceremony by wishing them well. When you can find compassion in your heart, you know you are on your way to healing.

Free of resentment, we have much more energy and attention to devote to our personal development. We can fill the spaces it left behind with unconditional acceptance and joy. And, as a result of our subsequent freedom from resentment, blessings can once again enter our lives as the walls we built to contain our anger have been demolished.

~ By Madisyn Taylor

World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation

World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation

Tuesday, September 1, 2026

Pope Francis established 1 September as the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, encouraging the Catholic community around the world to pray for our common home.

The day is inspired by Pope Francis' landmark encyclical Laudato Si’, which calls on "every person living on this planet" to care for our shared Earth.

Season of Creation

September 1, 2026 - October 4, 2026

This World Day of Prayer falls at the beginning of the Season of Creation, which runs until 4 October, the feast of St Francis of Assisi. This is an ecumenical season dedicated to prayer for the protection of creation and the promotion of sustainable lifestyles.

The theme that Pope Leo XIV has chosen for 2026 is

"They shall beat their swords into plowshares 

and their spears into pruning hooks”

(Is 2:4).

A Prayer

Lord,

Take my life and let me live serenely for today.
Open my mind to happy thoughts.
Take away my self-pity, I don’t want it.
Take away my ill will towards others.
Make it possible for me to feel joy, love, and compassion.
Help me to accept what is, 

     to hold my tongue, to do my daily task, and to let go with love.
Take away my worry about the future.
Make me realize that in Your hands everything will be provided.
Help me to understand that I have no control over anything but my own actions.
Make me know that today is precious and will soon be gone.
Help me to remember that all hatred and pain directed toward me 

     are the hatred and pain the other person is feeling toward himself.
Thank You for your willingness to accept my burden and lighten my load.

~~ By Unknown

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today’s gospel, a continuation of Matthew 16 that we began last week, shows Peter falling out of grace before he had any time to settle in. Last Sunday we heard in St. Paul’s letter to the Romans 11: 33 -36, that God’s judgments are “inscrutable” and God’s ways “unsearchable.” St. Paul asks: “who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor”? In today’s gospel, Jesus rebukes Peter because he is “thinking not as God does, but as human beings do." Of course, none of us can think exactly like God, not even Peter

Last week Peter was the hero of the gospel. His confession of faith earned him a new name, Rock, the rock on which Jesus planned to build his church. This week Peter is still a rock; however, he is now a stumbling block, an “obstacle” to Jesus and his mission. Like Jeremiah in the first reading, Peter, who received Jesus’ blessing last week, now finds himself heaped with “derision and reproach.” Although Peter recognized Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” he could not comprehend the reality of the cross. He was thinking in terms of a champion King, a triumphant Messiah, not a suffering servant. He did not understand that Jesus’ victory could only come through sacrifice, suffering, death and resurrection.

Jesus told the disciples repeatedly that there is a cost to discipleship. Just as he had to take up the cross and die in order to fulfill his mission, the disciples had to be willing to deny themselves and take up their crosses in order to follow him. They had to clear away their very human mental and physical stumbling blocks so they could carry on the mission of Jesus and build the Kingdom here. We have to do the same. Jesus reminds us that we will be held accountable, “For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay all according to his conduct.”

Father, help us to seek the values 

 that will bring us lasting joy in this changing world. 

 In our desire for what you promise, 

 make us one in mind and heart. 

 Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, 

 Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, 

 God, forever and ever.

Amen