In my homilies this weekend I shared my response to folks’ questions about how things are going now that we’re a couple of months into: “tired”! Not a bad kind of tired, mind you, but the kind where the days end fairly late (8am to 8pm has been the norm lately) and the backlog builds up fairly quickly! There are a ton of things to do and not enough hours in a week to get them done. For a detail-oriented perfectionist, it’s the perfect purgatory – though certainly not where I want to live for any great length of time ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Knowing the Lord’s sense of humor, I suspect that this is right where the Lord wants things – not only for my humility (certainly that, sigh) but also for our communities: sometimes it is good to be reminded that it is not human but divine effort that brings us success. As attributed to Saint Ignatius (albeit with some debate): “Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on you.”

How appropriate that this week ends with the feast of the exaltation of the holy cross! We share in Christ’s triumph – and He has already won the victory over sin & death. Moreover, He doesn’t shy away from human vulnerability or weakness but rather makes it the means by which eternal life is restores to us and to the world. Jesus saved the world by becoming weak, so that we may share in His strength!

All of that to say, maybe tired isn’t so bad! The Lord is in control, and He is doing wonderful things. May we take time to share our needs with Him, letting His grace (re)fill us and carry us in the His work.

September 9 – “This was how we spoke to them, not with words but with our hands and our actions.” This from a letter from Saint Peter Claver, writing about his ministry to slaves from Africa (the second reading from the Office of Readings for today’s memorial). Seeing the terrible suffering of his fellow man, caring for their physical needs was how he showed them the love of Christ. Read about him at Catholic World Report.

September 11 – Today we recall the anniversary of the 9/11/2001. Though more than a generation has passed since that day, the memory of the attacks, the suffering, and the subsequent sacrifices & heroism of so many loom large in the memories of many of us – and in society at large. Though more than twenty years have passed, there is yet much healing needed so that we might truly live as brothers and sisters. Check out the USCCB page for suggested prayers & reflections for this day.

September 13 – Saint John Chrysostom is perhaps most famously quoted as having said “The road to Hell is paved with the bones of priests and monks, and the skulls of bishops are the lamp posts that light the path.” Yet it is not this (admittedly debatable) quote that the Church focuses on for his memorial. It one of his homilies God’s love present between Christians – a love that ought to be pursued and built by us all! – that the Church chooses for the Office of Readings on his memorial today. Read more at The World is Quiet Here (the blog of my friend Thom Ryng).

September 14 – Catholics make the sign of the cross so often that perhaps we may be forgiven for taking for granted how integral the cross is to our faith and prayer. Today’s feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is a welcome reminder of the centrality of Christ’s salvific act. An instrument of torture – meant to heighten the suffering of those condemned to death and terrify those who beheld it – became the sign of new life and the height of love. Read about today’s feast and the history of the finding of the True Cross at Franciscan Media.

---

Priests celebrating their anniversaries this week