6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

by © LPi Fr. John Muir  |  02/16/2025  |  Weekly Reflection

I craved four things as a teenager: success in sports, food, fun, and the attention of popular people. However, I noticed that as I acquired them, I was more unsatisfied than before. So, I’d strive even more energetically, achieve more, and the sense of emptiness was greater still. These four things started to feel like burdens or even curses. Soon after, I encountered Christ in my high school youth group. Experiencing his love was totally different than anything those four things previously produced. It produced a lasting happiness.

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5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

by © LPi Fr. John Muir  |  02/09/2025  |  Weekly Reflection

My parents’ garage is full of old junk that no longer serves any purpose in my life. As a 46-year-old man, I admit that’s pretty lame. Either due to my sentimentality or laziness (or both, probably), I just couldn’t get myself to throw things away. But a few days ago, by a grace of God, I thought: “I’ll hire my nephew Ryan to throw a bunch of my stuff away — he couldn’t care less about my junk!” And you know what? It worked.

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The Presentation of the Lord

by © LPi Fr. John Muir  |  02/02/2025  |  Weekly Reflection

What is the secret to sharing in God’s power to overcome our difficulties? Mary teaches us this in the prophecy of her pierced heart. This Sunday, the old man Simeon prophecies that when her son faces opposition, Mary’s soul will be pierced by a sword. The seemingly pointless agony of a mother helplessly watching her son be mocked, tortured, killed, and then cruelly desecrated in death by a spear — somehow this piercing of her heart releases a power by which “the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:35). What to make of this?

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3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

by © LPi Fr. John Muir  |  01/26/2025  |  Weekly Reflection

A young couple in my parish told me they were expecting their second child, a baby boy. I knew that their five-year old only child Emma had been desperately wanting to be a big sister for years, so I said, “Emma must have been so happy when you told her the news.” “Actually,” they said, “she burst into tears. She wanted a baby sister!” How often in life God wonderfully fulfills our desires and we are sad because we don’t approve of the way he does it. We want to control the gift and the delivery method.

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2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

by Fr. Jess Ty  |  01/19/2025  |  Weekly Reflection

Dear Family of God,

Why is the Marital Relationship important in our Lives here on earth and in the next?

God in Jesus is our true husband. He is the Bridegroom that is eternally faithful to His Bride, the Church, that is, all of us. Even when we are unfaithful, turning away from Him, committing adultery by worshiping other gods, He remains faithful to us. He does not abandon us.

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The Baptism of the Lord

by © LPi Fr. John Muir  |  01/12/2025  |  Weekly Reflection

In my second year of theology studies, I went to confession to a priest visiting the seminary for a three-day retreat. My heart wasn’t in it. I was going through the motions. I confessed my sins and waited for his response. The priest said, “For your penance, I’d like you to go into the chapel and repeat the words ‘You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased’ (Luke 3:22) until they mean something to you.” Easy penance, I thought.

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Epiphany of the Lord

by Fr. Jess Ty  |  01/05/2025  |  Weekly Reflection

For the past week, Our Holy Mother, the Church gave us St. John’s letter on all first readings on weekday Masses to reflect on. After encountering Jesus, the light of the world, he wants us to see and teaches us how to live in the light. Just like the Magi in our Gospel, after encountering Jesus, they went home in another way.

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