Fr. Tom Lynch, OP

Can we be like Jesus, who emptied himself of his divine glory in order to come and be one of us. Can we listen to one another without needing to be right? Can we take a moment to just listen?

Jesus told us that the greatest commandment was to love God with your entire being. Whatever we do to pray, if we do it in a spirit of love for God, it will draw us closer to God.

On this Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, we hear a reading about how God sees everything and we do not. But Francis had a talent for seeing the inner goodness of a person, even when the exterior was a little gruf. Can we grow in our ability to do this?

Jesus was asked by the rich young man, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" His response showed that cherishing one another here on earth leads to cherishing them in heaven, because God's kingdom is on earth and it is in heaven.

The Trinity—three persons, one God—is a mystery far beyond our comprehension. But rather than trying to grasp it, Jesus tells his followers to go out and make disciples from all the nations on earth in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In that encounter with a diverse group of others, all made in the image of God, we will learn more about God than we will by pondering the mystery.

Jesus is the vine and we the branches. But to produce much fruit the branches need to be pruned. What in our lives needs to be pruned so that we can produce much fruit?