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Silence. We do not get enough of it. We are so unfamiliar with silence and stillness that it can be a bit unsettling for us. Yet the Lord most often speaks in silence, and we must learn to hear him there.

Silence. We do not get enough of it. We are so unfamiliar with silence and stillness that it can be a bit unsettling for us. Yet the Lord most often speaks in silence, and we must learn to hear him there.

The Lord speaks to us today about our deepest longing for satisfaction. No matter how materially wealthy you might be, at our core all of us are needy. Some of us recognize that more readily than others, but it is a universal truth. That is actually good news because if we are not needy then we do not need the Lord either.

The life of Solomon is a cautionary tale. The Lord will never force you to do anything. Catholicism, the sacraments, prayer, and grace, these things are not magic that do what they are supposed to do simply by doing them. They require my willing participation, my ongoing assent, to be effective.

The Spirit is reminding us of the character of God while shining a light on our clandestine attempts to usurp his role as God. God is not overpowered by his own strength. He is strong enough, self-controlled enough, to be gentle. Unlike you and me who far too often act out of passions that we do not control well, God does not have a knee jerk reaction to our sins to lash out at us.

The Word of the Lord that inspired the prophet, the very same Word of the Lord that we hear proclaimed at Mass, is living and effective (see Hebrews 4:12). God’s Word is every bit as effective as the rain. Just as the rain cannot help but nurture the earth when it falls, God’s Word cannot help but bring about what he says.

Jesus rides humbly into our daily lives in ways that we can easily miss, not astride a war horse but in your spouse and your kids, in your coworkers and in a chance meeting with a stranger. Let us remember the lesson of Holy Week and not crucify the Lord when he shows up in a way different from what we want.

The Shunamite couple’s relationship with Elisha is a concrete illustration of people who receive a prophet because he is a prophet and who receive a righteous man because he is righteous. It also illustrates the result promised by Jesus: they received a reward. Doing good is its own reward, and sometimes the Lord sees fit to sweeten the pot a bit in this life all the while keeping the true prophet’s reward for heaven.

Jeremiah's preaching against Sabbath violations and idolatry had resulted in repeated persecution at the hands of the religious leaders and eventually Jerusalem’s royalty. In our first reading this week, the Spirit speaks to us about the persecution that often results from speaking the Word of the Lord in a culture that would rather not be bothered with such things.

Their calling was to lead a religious reform of all of humanity, to restore right worship of the true God, and to do so specifically as royal priests. They failed to keep the covenant in the Gold Calf incident, but the Lord never really let go of his original intention, and the concept is taken up anew in the New Testament and applied to all Christians. You and I, we are royal priests.

Just as in ancient times, the Lord feeds us with bread from heaven. This New Manna is a greater miracle than the old manna. The New Manna of the Eucharist feeds our souls, prepares our bodies for resurrection, and serves as the medicine of immortality.

It is the essence of the Holy Trinity to be merciful, slow to anger, and rich in kindness. It is who he is. It is how he ticks. It is what he says of himself.

This week the Spirit reminds us of many things, not the least of which is that the Lord is working the seemingly disparate events, not just of history but of your life, into a cohesive and purposeful narrative too.

During this great pause before activating their own ministries, they “devoted themselves with one accord to prayer,” which is the greatest waiting activity of all time. Is the Lord calling you to wait for something right now?

The Spirit is reminding us that the Lord still Confirms Samaritan hearts, folks like you and me who are imperfect and at times halfhearted, when they receive the word of God willingly.

Not every good is mine to do. Important as some good things are, I cannot say yes to every good thing without having to say no to my vocation, the primary good thing that Lord has given me to do.

People do convert every day. People do change every day. People do respond to that basic Gospel message every day. If we don’t see it, it might be because we keep the message to ourselves too much.

Peter's bold Pentecost sermon is a reminder to us that God works all things for good.

We do not have to imagine what it was like being a part of the earliest community of Christians because we can live the way they lived. We too can devote ourselves to studying our faith, to living in communion, to Mass, and to a regular life of prayer.

Peter emphasizes Jesus’ ministry, Passion, and bodily Resurrection, such that they “ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.” This stubborn insistence of the Apostles that a dead man came back to life–and not just the same kind of life he had before death but to a new way of existing with a human body–is the central and definitive claim of Christianity.