Fr Kevin Kilgore

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Gospel: Luke 11: 5-13

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Suppose one of you has a friend
to whom he goes at midnight and says,
‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey
and I have nothing to offer him,’
and he says in reply from within,
‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked
and my children and I are already in bed.
I cannot get up to give you anything.’
I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves
because of their friendship,
he will get up to give him whatever he needs
because of his persistence.

“And I tell you, ask and you will receive;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives;
and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
What father  among you would hand his son a snake
when he asks for a fish?
Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit
to those who ask him?”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Examine your prayer life. 

What is your conversation with God like? When you pray, do you find yourself constantly asking for things? Or is your prayer centered in gratitude?

I remember somebody said to me recently they were a “crisis Catholic.” They only prayed when in need. 

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Jesus does say, “Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

Sometimes we interpret these words to mean, “If I pray hard enough, long enough, even loud enough, then God will give me exactly what I want, just like the persistent neighbor in today’s Gospel who banged on his friend’s door forcefully until it was opened.”

But that’s not the case.

Jesus is not telling us that we can manipulate the mind of God, or that we can twist his arm into doing whatever we want, like children who exhaust their parents with relentless nagging.

Rather, “ask, seek, knock… and the door will be opened to you.” 

Behind that door is not a thing, but a Person, the Holy Spirit. 

This is the sole guarantee of prayer.

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Saint Paul says the fruit of the Holy Spirit, thus the fruit of prayer, includes, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

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Maybe you’ve been praying for a conflict at work to end. Even if it hasn’t, through prayer God will soften your heart, filling you with the peace, patience, and wisdom you need to navigate your way through it.

Maybe a particular temptation keeps tugging at your flesh. Even if God has not uprooted it, the Holy Spirit will give you the grace you need to persevere until freedom comes.

Perhaps your heart has become fearful or restless, prayer may not change the root cause of your stress, but it can replace your fear with peace.

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Set aside a few quiet moments today. 

Ask, seek, and knock on heaven’s door. Invite the Spirit to come, then God’s peace will be with you.

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Image credits: (1) Developing Your Prayer Life Bible App (2) micbic.org (3) Brushhillchurch.org

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Gospel: Luke 1:26-38

The angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the house of David,
and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said,
“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Then the angel said to her,
“Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”
But Mary said to the angel,
“How can this be,
since I have no relations with a man?”
And the angel said to her in reply,
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born
will be called holy, the Son of God.
And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,
has also conceived a son in her old age,
and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
for nothing will be impossible for God.”
Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”
Then the angel departed from her.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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A few years ago, on the cover page of National Geographic there was a picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary with the title, “The Most Powerful Woman in the World.”

More than one billion Catholics refer to her as their spiritual mother, a command first given by Jesus to John at the Cross: “Behold, your mother.” 

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Two factors that have inspired Marian devotion are her relatability and her many apparitions throughout the centuries. 

She is relatable because, like many Christians, Mary was poor. She spent time as a refugee. She accepted God’s plan for her life while she was still a teenager, modeling a path for other young people to follow. And from the annunciation to the cross, she walked the path of faith paved in surrender.

Mary is powerful because she is relatable; she is one of us.

Secondly, she pulls back the veil between heaven and earth. The first reported Marian apparition took place in the year 40 AD, shortly after her assumption. 

There have been an estimated 2,000 Marian apparitions since, almost 20 of which have been officially approved by the Vatican, reminding us of Mary’s intimate connection with humanity, even from the highest realms of heaven. 

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Today we celebrate one of those apparitions, Our Lady of the Rosary. 

In the 13^th century, the Blessed Mother appeared to Saint Dominic and assured him that, among other things, if he spread devotion to the rosary, then his religious order would flourish. 

800 years later, there are more than 5,000 Dominican nuns and priests ministering around the world – with more than 70 Dominicans having been canonized as Saints! A reminder that Mary is true to her word.

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May she, the most powerful woman in the world, intercede for us today as we pray: 

Hail Mary…

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Image credits: (1) Beliefnet.com (2) National Geographic (3) Saintraphaelchurch.org

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Gospel: Luke 10: 38-42

Jesus entered a village 
where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.
She had a sister named Mary
who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. 
Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said,
“Lord, do you not care
that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? 
Tell her to help me.” 
The Lord said to her in reply,
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. 
There is need of only one thing. 
Mary has chosen the better part
and it will not be taken from her.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Imagine the scene in today’s Gospel. Perhaps we’ve experienced something similar before.

Martha’s hair up in a bun, beads of sweat are forming on her forehead, her waist is wrapped in an apron, her joints are inflamed from standing too long, and flour is covering her hands and the floor. 

Meanwhile, water is boiling – and so is she. 

Storming into the living room, she accuses Jesus of not caring about her burdens while she blames Mary for being the cause of her anxiety. 

But Jesus, the divine physician, diagnoses the root cause of Martha’s stress. “You are worried and anxious about many things,” he says. The root of the verb, “worry,” means, “to strangle; to seize by the throat; to tear.” 

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At least that day, Martha seized her work by the throat and squeezed any grace out of it.

In her kitchen, all she saw a giant mess. Water boiling over; vegetables half cut; flour everywhere; and a whole lot of “stuff” to get done with a lazy, absentee sister.

Instead, she could’ve imagined:

The Lord’s voice humming beneath that boiling water; his empty stomach soon to be filled; his gratitude for a hot meal – a labor of love; even Mary’s heart being filled with wisdom as she learned from Jesus.

The entire scene is sacred. Her work is sacred. Her home is sacred. Most importantly, their guest is sacred.

But Martha is too focused on “what” she was doing, as opposed to “why” she was doing it, ruining a beautiful liturgy, as it were, in the process.

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How often are we like Martha? We get so stressed by what we are doing that we forget why we ever started? By the end of the day, we might say, in the words of TS Eliot, “We had the experience, but missed the meaning.” 

May we relax our hands and hearts, allowing grace to flow freely throughout our day, and so encounter Christ along the way.

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Image credits: (1) iStock (2) Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, Vermeer (3) Etsy