Let Your Life Speak
September 26, 2023
Sharing the Word for October 12, 2020 – Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time – Year 2
God’s representatives still proclaim the word of the Lord today to all who will listen. How attentive to them am I?
Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos
Francis Xavier Seelos was born in Bavaria. He studied in Munich before coming to the United States to serve the German-speaking immigrants. He remained here his entire adult life serving both his parishioners and fellow Redemptorists.
The Lost Art of Listening
“Gym tonight?” That was the text from my friend Krista. And just as Batman jumps into action when the bat symbol lights up the sky, I knew she needed me. The gym is code for, “I need to talk, and I need someone to listen.” She could have needed to talk about her kids, her job, or just the pressures of being a mom. I just needed to be there with open ears and an open heart.
The fact that we would be able to do a little exercise in the process was just a bonus.
The Baggage We Carry
When we go into the inner desert, we appreciate for the first time just how much unnecessary baggage we carry around. We see and gasp at the incredible artificiality of our old way of life, the flimsiness of our old values, the duplicity of our old self. The process is harrowing because it rips away everything by which we’ve defined ourselves. But this desert dying, this going under, is a necessary condition for the kind of “ineffable joy” and “wonderful light” that suffused Francis at the end of his time in the pit.
Brooklyn bishop says new limits on congregation size ‘outrageous, unfair’
Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn called New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s new restrictions on houses of worship “outrageous,” “unfair,” “disrespectful” and an attack on religious freedom.