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Jesus said, "whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it." Children are dependent on others for the basic needs of their lives, and they know it. We are dependent on God's mercy to to be able to live in the kingdom of God. Do we always remember that?

Today we have the end of the Book of Job, where Job realizes that he cannot understand the ways of God, but at least he knows that God loves him and will, in the end, make things right. That is enough for Job. Is it enough for us?

Br. Joe Trout, OP breaks open the readings for the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time. First, the prophet Isaiah tells a people who were suffering in darkness that God will send a messiah to save them. In the Gospel, Jesus does the things that show that he is the promised messiah, though he does not want everyone to know yet. Then, the second reading is from the Letter of James, a "brother" of Jesus, who does not claim to be the new messiah to carry on Jesus' work. Rather, James claims that Jesus is still alive and is alone the messiah, and is working though him to keep bringing about the kingdom.

In Luke's Gospel we hear of Jesus expelling demons. Is demonic possession real, or was it just some form of mental illness? What we can certainly say is that if demons are real, we don't have to worry about them if we trust in Jesus, because Jesus has power over all.

The people of Nazareth thought they already knew Jesus, and so could not accept that he was more than they thought. We can discover amazing things by being open to being taught by God rather than holding on to our small ideas.

Br. Joe Trout breaks open the readings for the Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, tying the disparate readings together—Amos is not a professional prophet, just trying to do God's will; Jesus calls the apostles to trust him and follow his work; and Paul reminds us that it is God who lavishes grace upon us. Thus, we must ask ourselves: is this God working through me, or are these my own ideas that are getting in the way of God working through me?

Readings: Amos 7:12–15, Ephesians 1:3–14, Mark 6:7–13

God instructed Hosea to marry an unfaithful wife as sign of both Israel's unfaithfulness and God's enduring love. When we gaze on a crucifix we can see both our sin in crucifying our saviour and God's love in enduring that for our salvation. Let us embrace that duality.

God instructed Hosea to marry an unfaithful wife as sign of both Israel's unfaithfulness and God's enduring love. When we gaze on a crucifix we can see both our sin in crucifying our saviour and God's love in enduring that for our salvation. Let us embrace that duality.

On this memorial of The Immaculate Heart of Mary, we remember Mary as having the perfect human heart, untouched by sin. In iconography, Mary's Immaculate Heart is pictured in flames, recalling the burning bush that Moses encountered on Mount Horeb from which God spoke of his desire to save humanity. Mary's heart was grafted on to God's heart when she said agreed to become the Mother of God. Even though we see in the Gospel that Mary did not always understand the plan of God, her burning love never wavered.

For the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, we are invited to see Jesus as the absolute love of God taken flesh so that we might be able to enter heaven—a proof of the love of God for us.

Br. Joe Trout, OP breaks open the readings for the Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (often still called "Corpus Christi"), revealing the many-layered themes that reveal God's complete plan of salvation for the world—creating us in the image of God to be God's presence in the world and then giving us the Eucharist so that we can live up to this call.

Readings: Exodus 24:3–8, Hebrews 9:11–15, Mark 14:12–16, 22–26

In this world, joys come and go. But Jesus promises us a joy that no one can take away—the joy of heaven, the restoration of all good things.