Romans 12:9-13: Let love be without any pretense. Avoid what is evil; stick to what is good. In brotherly love let your feelings of deep affection for one another come to expression and regard others as more important than yourself. the service of the Lord, work not half-heartedly, but with conscientiousness and an eager spirit. Be joyful in hope, persevere in hardship; keep praying regularly; share with any of God’s holy people who are in need; look for opportunities to be hospitable.
If we are looking for a formula for happiness, here it is.
If we are wondering what yardsticks we might use to measure ourselves, here we have them.
If we are asking ourselves how we might experience peace, here is the answer.
Focus on what is good, seek wisdom, be persistent, pray in all circumstances, welcome others, share God’s mercy, live a life of authentic love. Paul gives us a recipe for joy that may seem difficult; yet it is simple.
Serve God by serving others, love God by loving others. We have been granted the ingredients. Now we must use them well.
Van der Weyden: Mary MagdaleneA Favorite from July 22, 2008.
The Evangelists tell us that the Resurrected Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene. July 22 is her feast day. When we pause to reflect on this singular woman, we wonder, what must she have been truly like? What was she thinking as she stooped to look into the tomb as John tells us in his Gospel? What is her real story?
St. Gregory the Great tells us something of her character. From MAGNIFICAT: It is true that she had already seen that the sepulcher was empty, and had already reported that the Lord had been taken away. Why did she stoop down again, why did she long again to see? It is not enough for a lover to have looked once, because the force of love intensifies the effort of the search. She sought a first time and found nothing; she persevered in seeking, and so it happened that she found him. It came about that her unfulfilled desires increased, and as they increased they took possession of what they found.
From the Mass readings: The Bride says: on my bed at night I sought him whom my heart loves – I sought him but I did not find him. I will rise then and go about the city; in the streets and crossings I will seek him whom my heart loves. I sought him but I did not find him. The watchmen came upon me, as they made their rounds of the city: Have you seen him whom my heart loves? I had hardly left them when I found him whom my heart loves. (Song of Songs 3:1-4b)
O God, you are my God whom I seek; for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water. ( Psalm 63)
What is the Magdalene’s story? Why does she come with the other women, worrying about who will move away the stone, carrying the funeral spices? Why does she return, bending to look another time when she knows the tomb to be empty?
Henryk Siemiradzki: The First Meeting of Christ and Mary MagdaleneThe Magdalene believes. She trusts. She hopes. She endures. She perseveres. She will not be turned away. She loves.
Any one of us who has truly loved understands this force of love about which St. Gregory writes.
Any one of us who has sought that which has been lost has felt this sorrow.
Any one of us who has persisted in our search has found this joy.
And so we wonder, what is the Magdalene’s real story?
Building the Jerusalem TempleFrom time to time as we reflect at noontime, we have read about the Jerusalem temple, the holy of holies, the wisdom and power of Solomon, and relations between peoples of the Middle Eastern region. Today, as we read this chapter, we might think ahead to what we know happens to this temple, this man, and these peoples. Our thinking will bring to us many questions.
How is that measurements are scrutinized, forests are felled and then bound into rafts and ferried to the construction site, masons, carpenters, goldsmiths and sculptors are employed, splendor rises from the earth; yet, we manage to forget the covenant which gives birth to the plan in the first place?
How is it that we take so much care with our time and resources to plan, prepare and produce something so worthy of so much praise from so many; yet, we fail to tend to the principles that make this construction or this plan worthy to begin with?
How is it that we enter into so many relationships, make so many plans, see them through and then walk away from, or worse – we defile, the beauty and serenity that has coalesced around these relationships? What is it about human beings that can ignore the taste of the manna, the smell of the cedar, the sight of the gold, the touch of the friezes, the sound of so many kneeling in prayer?
The stones for this temple were formed at the quarry before taken to the construction site so that the sound of hammer on chisel would not disturb the peace of the house of God. Yet we know that years later the people, their priests and political leaders would bow to the corruption of ungodly customs. How did sacrificing babies become a fit practice for the people of God? What was left out of these careful preparations that this kind of malpractice could not be foreseen and forestalled?
One of today’s Morning Intercessions in MAGNIFICAT catches my eye: For those who delay examining their decisions and habits: let them see how quickly life passes. O Lord, listen to our prayer.
Perhaps it was not that the plans we read about today left something out. Perhaps it was that the people and their priests and their political leaders did not continue to examine their collective conscience. Perhaps the prophets’ words fell on the ears of those who were delaying the examination of their decisions and habits. Perhaps the people, their priests and their political leaders did not see how quickly life was passing them by.
This afternoon and this evening as we enter into prayer, we may want to support one another as we examine our decisions, our habits, and our preparations.
Do our actions rise from the Gospel story?
Do our decisions and habits respect human life and nature?
Do we give light to all?
Are our decisions and habits worthy of being written about or recorded?
Revelation 3:20: Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me.
We often see the Book of Revelation as a bizarre, apocryphal tale that we cannot understand without commentary. Sadly, we decide that it is too symbolic and too strange to have much impact on our lives.
In the penultimate verse of the Book of Revelation, we hear the words; Yes, I am coming soon. Regretfully, we decide that since we have not seen Jesus in the last half hour in a form we recognize then these words have little to do with our lives.
We flip through the last pages of the Bible, deciding that the events happened too long ago to matter and we close the door to Scripture before we even look at the Book of Revelation. Disappointedly, we look elsewhere for hope; we go elsewhere for joy; we search other faces for love. And yet . . . Behold, God stands at the door and knocks.
Let us spend some time this week-end discerning God’s presence in our lives. And let us decide to dine with God tonight.
To reflect more on how we perceive God’s presence and action in our lives, enter the word Door in the blog search box and click on a post that speaks to you.
Proverbs 23:18: There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.
When days seem futile and nights too long, still there is hope.
When our bodies are weary and our minds can no longer think, still there is hope.
When our souls are so burdened that we begin to believe that there is no place, no person, no way through which we can connect with God, still there is hope for hope is in God, and God is eternal.
To reflect more on how God is with us still, enter the word Hopein the blog search box.
Mark 12:30: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul with all your mind and with all your strength.
God does not love us partially but fully and completely. Why do we love God in bits and pieces? What is it we fear giving over to God?
God abides with us constantly and always. Why do we come and go in our relationship with God? What is it that distracts us so much from God?
God defends and protects us in ways both seen and unseen. Why do we insist on our own plans in our own time? What is so important to us that we seek to control so vigorously?
God loves us fully even though we love him partially.
God loves us always even though we love him inconstantly.
God loves us dynamically, eternally, and with all God has and is. Let us struggle anew to love God with all that we have and all that we are.
This is what Christ asks of us today and all days.
Enter the words The Shema into the blog search bar and explore how this concept may figure more in our daily activities, thoughts and prayers.
Luke 8:15: But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.
This story is familiar to all of us – seed sowed among thorns, between rocks and along pathways. Thistles and hard places do not nurture freedom and growth; they stifle the burgeoning spirit. Tilled, irrigated soil is the better nest for promoting mercy and many of us do not have the benefit of this kind of gift. Yet all of us have God’s forgiveness no matter our actions. Each of us is called to goodness no matter our surroundings. All of us are loved by God no matter our circumstances.
Let us look for fertile soil in which we might grow today and all days.
Let us respond to God’s call with the noble and good heart that is God-given.
Let us hear God’s Word retain it and persevere in it.
And let us produce with our lives a good and gracious crop that we might return to our loving God.
Select a page on the blog and consider how we might respond to God’s Word and produce a good harvest.
Isaiah 54:10: Though the mountains leave their place and the hills be shaken, my love shall never leave you nor my covenant of peace be shaken, says the Lord, who has mercy on you.
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
Today’s reflection is brief to give us the opportunity to explore the life of Paul Farmer.
It is difficult to imagine that the Alps or the Andes or the Himalayan Mountains might leave their place and yet with God’s mercy they do.
When we place all hope in God, massive obstacles are overcome.
When we move through our days in Christ’s faith, immense disabilities are re-mediated.
When we act in the Spirit’s love, impossible circumstances melt away.
God’s overpowering love moves the mountains in our lives when we act in God’s unlimited mercy. God’s covenant with us is eternal. Let us remain faithful to God and to the promises we make.
Farmer died in 2022. For more on his life, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Farmer or Harvard’s Memorial Minute at: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://fa.hms.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum4521/files/2025-05/Memorial%20Minute.Farmer%2C%20Paul%20E._0.pdf
John Everett Millais: EstherWe have no way of knowing what plans are schemed against us. We have no method of seeing into the private places where the covetous lie on couches to weave their plots that entangle others. We canbe certain, however, that when the faithful find themselves the victims of these plots – as the Jews do in the story of Esther – that God will redeem God’s people, will release them from oppression, and will decide how the connivers are to be judged.
In the story of Mordecai and Esther, Haman becomes jealous because Mordecai does not play the game of courtier as Haman would wish, yet has influence and prestige – which Haman covets. Rather than find union with Mordecai, Haman builds a gibbet on which to hang his perceived enemies only to see his family executed and himself led to the scaffold on which he had meant to exterminate the Jew he so hated.
For several weeks we have been reflecting on honesty versus deceit and today we find another clear lesson of what is expected by God of the faithful. Earlier in Chapter 4 when Esther tells her uncle that she is afraid to go to the king to tell him of Haman’s plot, Mordecai reminds her that the faithful must do as God bids for if they do not, God will find another willing to do the work. Then Mordecai reminds his niece of the fate she will suffer if she goes against God’s will (4:14).
So when we read these later chapters – and when we spend time praying, meditating and reflecting on God’s word to us – we know that we, too, hear the words of Mordecai, we also feel the tremors which Esther feels when she sees a task looming before her that is too great to bear. It will serve us well to read this story from beginning to end, including the later insertions, and to ponder God’s plan for us as we move through our days.
We need not worry about plots schemed against us; nor do we need to create a plan of reprisal. We onlyneed to be constant to God each day, to maintain our covenant, to lay all problems at God’s feet for resolution. For this is the only way we will find peace amid the noise of the world. This is the only path to a serenity that lasts and sustains. This is the only true Way in which to live the gift of Life.
Written on June 15, 2008 and posted today as a Favorite.
Romans 12:9-13: Let love be without any pretense. Avoid what is evil; stick to what is good. In brotherly love let your feelings of deep affection for one another come to expression and regard others as more important than yourself. the service of the Lord, work not half-heartedly, but with conscientiousness and an eager spirit. Be joyful in hope, persevere in hardship; keep praying regularly; share with any of God’s holy people who are in need; look for opportunities to be hospitable. 
The Noontimes 