We Thank Thee!

For flowers that bloom about our feet,

Father, we thank Thee.

For tender grass so fresh, so sweet,

Father, we thank Thee.

For the song of bird and hum of bee,

For all things fair we hear or see,

Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

For blue of stream and blue of sky,

Father, we thank Thee.

For pleasant shade of branches high,

Father, we thank Thee.

For fragrant air and cooling breeze,

For beauty of the blooming trees,

Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

For this new morning with its light,

Father, we thank Thee.

For rest and shelter of the night,

Father, we thank Thee

For health and food, for love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends,

Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God."

(1 Thessalonians 5:18)

May God Bless You on This Thanksgiving Day!

Pie

A Jesuit and a Franciscan sat down to dinner, and pie was served for dessert. There were two pieces of pie, one cut smaller than the other. The Jesuit reached over and took the larger piece for himself. The Franciscan remonstrated, "St. Francis always taught us to take the smaller piece." So the Jesuit replied, "And so you have it!"

Bill

A man suffered a serious heart attack and had open heart bypass surgery. He awakened from the surgery to find himself in the care of nuns at a Catholic Hospital .

As he was recovering, a nun asked him questions regarding how he was going to pay for his treatment. She asked, “Do you have health insurance?”

He replied in a raspy voice, “No health insurance.”

The nun asked, “Do you have money in the bank?”

He replied, “No money in the bank.”

The nun asked, “Do you have a relative who could help you?”

He said, “I only have a spinster sister, who is a nun.”

The nun became agitated and announced loudly, “Nuns are not spinsters! Nuns are married to God.”

The patient replied, “Send the bill to my brother-in-law.”

It's Not About You

The Purpose Driven Life has sold millions of copies, and transformed millions of people and churches across the world. Instinctively, most people want to know: What is my purpose? How can I be more fulfilled?

What a shock to open this best-selling book and read the first sentence: “It’s not about you!”

And it’s not about you. Though Jesus is intently interested in you, and loves you more than can be described, he is King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, and is worthy of our worship.

We have been created to worship him, not the other way around.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

Given all the war, famine, drought and persecution going on in the world today have you ever wondered where God is in the midst of it all? Do you question God about suffering and injustice? The children of Israel did throughout their forty-year sojourn through the desert, King David did in the Psalms, the prophets Job, Isaiah, Jerimiah, Micah and Habakkuk did as well. There is a long history of people questioning God in the midst of suffering. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that “The world we live in often seems very far from the one promised us by faith. Our experiences of evil and suffering, injustice, and death, seem to contradict the Good News; they can shake our faith and become a temptation against it” (CCC 164)

According to the Catechism, rather than become overwhelmed by the seemingly hopelessness of it all, we “must turn to the witnesses of faith: to Abraham who ‘in hope …believed against hope.’ to the Virgin Mary, who in ‘her pilgrimage of faith,’ walked into the ‘night of faith’ in sharing the darkness of her son’s suffering and death; and to so many others …”(CCC 165). Our greatest “witness of faith” is Jesus Christ who by his own very human suffering gave us “redemption. The forgiveness of sins” (Col 1:14).

Today we celebrate the Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King. It is fitting that our Gospel for the day does not present us with a triumphant King. Rather we are confronted with the image of Jesus hanging on the cross jeered and mocked by the crowd and by a criminal who was crucified with him. This is not the portrait of a regal leader. It is the portrait of a suffering human being. Christ our Universal King is our king because he was willing to suffer as we do. He joined us in death so that we could join him in Paradise.

In today’s second reading St Paul reminded the Colossians and he reminds us that, “He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he himself might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things for him, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Col 1:18–20).

This brings me back to the question “where is God”? The suffering Jesus hanging on the cross is right here with the suffering people of the world suffering with them. The loving and compassionate God also is here working through people who are helping their neighbours who may be in need. The merciful God is in all of us from every corner of the world as we respond generously to the needs of our brothers and sisters. As long as there are people who respond to others with justice, compassion, mercy and love Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Universal King is with us welcoming us into his Kingdom just as he welcomed the second criminal crucified with him, the first citizen of Christ’s Kingdom.

You have rescued us, O God,

from the powers of darkness

and brought us into the kingdom of your beloved Son,

that we might share the justice and love of Christ's reign.

Grant that we may walk in the footsteps of Jesus,

the path of obedient faith and self-sacrificing love,

laying down our lives, as he did,

for our brothers and sisters,

in the sure and certain hope

that Jesus will remember us

when he comes into his kingdom

and share with us the glory of Paradise.

We ask this through the Christ

who was, who is and who is to come,

your Son who lives with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God for ever and ever.

Amen

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today’s readings from Malachi 3:19-20a and Luke 21: 5 – 19 present apocalyptic images of blazing fires, “wars and insurrections …. awesome sights and mighty signs,” suffering and persecution. While these images may seem extreme to us sitting here in Peachtree City, it occurred to me as I read that I could be reading the Atlanta Journal and Constitution or watching the evening news on television. The media inundates us with vivid pictures of war, earthquakes, famines, plagues and mysterious signs in the sky every day. And while it is not likely that we Christians in Peachtree City will suffer persecution, more than 310 million Christians in many parts of the world are suffering persecution for their faith, today – now! Christians in North Korea, Somalia, Yemen, Libia and Sudan top a list of 50 countries where people suffer for their faith (Open Doors International World Watch List 2025 ).

The difference between what we read in the AJC or watch on the evening news and what Jesus describes in Luke 21 is a message of hope and a call for perseverance. Jesus told his disciples and he tells us not to be deceived and not to be terrified. Yes, terrible things happen. We can expect to experience natural disasters and tragedies invoked by humans. What Jesus offers us is the courage to face disasters and tragedy. He says, "When these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand" (Luke 21: 28).

These are not easy times. It could be easy for us to become complacent and absorbed with our own daily lives. But as citizens of the kingdom of God, we know that we must "Be vigilant at all times and pray... [for] the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man" (Luke 21: 36).

O God, the beginning and the end of all things,

you fashion all humanity

into a living temple for your Son.

Through all of this life’s changes,

its joys and its sorrows,

may we hold fast the hope of your kingdom,

certain that by our patient endurance

we will come to possess eternal life.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God for ever and ever.

AMEN.

A Hermit's Prayer

 I Pray…

That I may depend on You and myself;
That You, Jesus and Your Spirit will fill my emptiness;
That I will ask You for help;
That You will give me a sense of well being;
That You will fill my loneliness;
That I will yearn only for You;
That Your Blessed Sacrament will give me dignity;
That I will solve my own problems with Your guidance;
That I will face myself;
That I will face the responsibilities of life;
That I will face my commitments;
That I will face life's tensions one day at a time;
That I will face myself;
That I will find my security in Your mercy;
That I will know that I am not alone, that You are with me as You said;
That I will turn myself over to Your care and protection;
That I will be available to myself;
That I will recognize my delusions and other's illusions;
That I will intimate with myself;
That I will ask for faith;
That I will know You are with me;
That will know that You will make up for my inadequacies;
That I will understand that I am worth your Son's life;
That I will know I am in Your arms and You will never let me go!

~ Sr. Emmanuel Bryant