Author: Gerry Palermo

Greetings on this the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: Isaiah 22:19-23; Psalm 138:1-2, 2-3, 6, 8; Romans 11:33-36; Matthew 16:13-20

Summary

The Name, the Rock and the Keys in our gospel portion today, give a single, unified view of the position of Prime Minister of the Church, basic purpose and visible structure.

1. Who do people say that the Son of Man is?
2. But who do you say that I am?
3. What shall we call Peter?

1a.Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
2a. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

3a. Jesus said to him in reply,
“Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
And so I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.

Reflection

The Old Testament reading today, the giving of authority to Eliakim, brings a meaningful perspective to the keys in our gospel portion.

I will place the key of the House of David on Eliakim’s shoulder;
when he opens, no one shall shut,
when he shuts, no one shall open.
I will fix him like a peg in a sure spot,
to be a place of honor for his family.” (Isa 22:22-23).

I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Mt 16:19).

a. Peter is the Rock of the Rock (Prime Minister) – with episcopal collegiality.
b. Bind and Loose those imprisoned by evil (Binding is to heal, loose is to set free).
c. Go on the offensive – proclaim! The gate of hell cannot withstand the force of love and will fall.

Lord, your love is eternal; do not forsake the work of your hands (Ps 138:8bc).

He has not forgotten us. He has given us One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

• One is Christ, his sacramental gifts, and led by His one Prime Minister.
• Holy as it is instituted by the Lord.
• Catholic means universal – open to all.
• Apostolic means enduring in succession among men until the end of time.

Personal Reflection

This is a very Catholic post. Yet my readers are from all faiths, and also no faiths. And everyone has an opinion about Jesus.

But who do you say that I am? is the question.

Our diversity of experiences, cultures and awareness brings a multitude of interior answers. Language helps but fails ultimately in the technical sense.

How can I reassure an anxious world? Perhaps Pope Leo XIV can speak it best?

“Peace be with you!”

This ancient greeting, still in use today in many cultures, was infused with new life on the evening of Easter on the lips of the risen Jesus. “Peace be with you” ( Jn 20:19, 21) is his Word that does not merely desire peace, but truly brings about a lasting transformation in those who receive it, and consequently in all of reality. For this reason, the Apostles’ successors give voice every day throughout the world to the most silent of revolutions: “Peace be with you!” From the very evening of my election as Bishop of Rome, I have wanted to join my own greeting to this universal proclamation. And I would like to reiterate that this is the peace of the risen Christ – a peace that is unarmed and disarming, humble and persevering. It comes from God who loves us all unconditionally.

(https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/messages/peace/documents/20251208-messaggio-pace.html)

Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082326.cfm

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

Greetings on this the Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Readings: Ezekiel 43:1-7ab; Psalm 85:9ab, 10, 11-12, 13-14; Matthew 23:1-12

Summary

Today we celebrate the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the octave of her Assumption to heaven.
The Blessed Mother is honored by her Son and Lord to be seated as Queen Mother – Mother of the Reigning Monarch Jesus. The concept of the “queen mother” has been used for over 3,400 years, dating back at least to the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt (c. 1500 BCE) (ref: Wiki).

The ordinary readings for today concern themselves with titles so we’ll use the ordinary reading to reflect upon this morning.

Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice (Mt 23:1-3).

The Denunciation of the Scribes and Pharisees has four distinct parts but is one unified whole. If you are in the seat of Moses, you are expected to be the servant leader in honesty and integrity.

1. Someone must occupy the seat of Moses, that is, someone must have authority to speak (Jesus is not saying teaching authority is void).
2. But not the way it is being done:
   2a. They do not follow what they tell you.
   2b. They preach but do not practice.
   2c. They create burdens without assisting.
   2d. They act in perfunctory ways.
   2e. They love honors and titles.

The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted (Mt 23:11-12).

3. Rabbi, Father, and Master name real functions and relationships, but Jesus condemns their use as instruments of superiority, prestige, or self-exaltation.
   3a. Do as you instruct.
   3b. Practice what you preach.
   3c. Share the burdens.
   3d. Act with sincerity.
   3e. Know that titles are for function and authority not personal attributes and personal gain.
4. A series of seven “woes” that are the apex of the teaching and a summation of the consequences of hypocrisy.

Reflection

Did you TAKE the seat of Moses?

The Blessed Mother did not take her seat but was elevated to her place by Her Son and Lord.

We must always consider the taking v receiving and the performative v the integrity needed to be a servant leader.

Personal Reflection

Lord, whenever I am given a title for function and authority may it always be in service for the kingdom. May I not seek personal gain or haughty attributes and may hypocrisy be far from me always. Mary, Mother of Our Lord, Pray for us!

Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082226.cfm

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

Greetings on this the Memorial of Saint Pius X, Pope (The Pope of Peace)
Readings: Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 107:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9; Matthew 22:34-40

Summary

The synoptic gospels -Matthew, Mark and Luke- each take a different approach to the encounter that answers the question: Which commandment in the law is the greatest?

In short:

Mark – A scribe saw how well he answered a previous question and asked… so as to go deeper… and Jesus told him he is close (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/12?28=#49012028).
Luke – A scholar asked the adjacent question (what must I do for eternal life?)… so as to validate his understanding… and got the affirming answer (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/10?25=#50010025).

Matthew stands out as a proper confrontation. Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, and the Pharisees wanted their shot at it.

Its core isn’t Which commandment in the law is the greatest?
The core is Who is the greatest?

Reflection

Today is the Memorial of Saint Pius X, Pope. He repeatedly had to deal with people that constantly evaluated life in terms of who is the greatest.

Several things stand out:

1. He did not find comfortable the pomp and circumstance of the overly ornate papal dress (his opinion). He was a poor man in a rich man’s world.
2. He encouraged Catholics to be politically involved in bringing the Greatest Commandment to the public forum and decision making, peace making.
3. He rejected the government of France in their attempt to co-opt Church administration.
4. He had the unfortunate fate of witnessing the beginning of World War I during his pontificate urging restraint and when asked to bless an army the Pope famously replied, “I do not bless arms, but peace.“

Too often we do not ask Jesus in order to be corrected or formed. Beneath our question hides another one: Who is greatest—me or him?

Who is the greatest? Me or him (whomever the ‘him’ is at the moment).

These are the dry bones of Ezekiel.
A people can shout about greatness while becoming dry bones—powerful in appearance, but emptied of the Spirit that gives life.

Rather we need to move beyond the ‘who’ to the which.
Everything we believe that is good (the law and prophets) depends on these two commandments. The commandment and activity of love.

Personal Reflection

In our secular society we hear over and over again these tropes.

• Who is the greatest!
• We are the greatest!

It is the voice of the dry bones.

Rather:

“Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, and we are cut off.”

O my people!
I will put my spirit in you that you may live,… thus you shall know that I am the LORD.

Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082126.cfm

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

Greetings on this the Memorial of Saint Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church
Readings: Ezekiel 36:23-28; Psalm 51:12-13, 14-15, 18-19; Matthew 22:1-14

Summary

A New Creation

I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will pour clean water on you and wash away all your sins. (Ez 36:26, 25).

A Response to an Invitation

If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts (Psalm 95:8).

All Are Welcome

Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast. Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.’ (Mt 22:4b, 9).

Be Reconciled with the Lord and one another

But when the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?’ But he was reduced to silence. Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’ (Mt 22:11-13).

Reflection

Given such a beautiful invitation to be restored and to enter the heavenly banquet as Ezekiel and Jesus describe for us today, it takes David to give voice to our inner awareness for conversion, that is, acceptance of the invitation requires a new orientation of honesty.

A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.

Give me back the joy of your salvation,
and a willing spirit sustain in me.
I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners shall return to you.

For you are not pleased with sacrifices;
should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
(Psalm 51:12-13, 14-15, 18-19)

Personal Reflection

Saturday (Aug 22) I am going to perform a baptism. In the first years of my ordination I did many baptisms – weekly and multiple. Ever since it has been sporadic and infrequent but always wonderful to enter into this sacred purpose.

(1) Enter into the joy of the parents who welcomed this child as a gift from God -the source of life, and who wishes to bestow his own life on this little one.
(2) So that this child, clothed in the baptismal garment, may one day come to the Feast of Heaven.

Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082026.cfm

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

Greetings on this the Wednesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
Readings: Ezekiel 34:1-11; Psalm 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6; Matthew 20:1-16

Summary

For thus says the Lord GOD: Look! I myself will search for my sheep and examine them. I myself will pasture my sheep; I myself will give them rest (Ez 34:11,15).

In our first reading today we have the Parable of the Shepherds. It is a prophecy against the shepherds actions and the need for the Lord to pasture the sheep instead. The specific examples hint of the underlying problem with the bad shepherds: Animalization (Dehumanization), [they are to be] plunder, because my sheep became food for wild beasts.

The sheep image itself does not dehumanize. Psalm 23 makes that clear. Animalization occurs when the shepherd no longer sees the sheep as lives entrusted to him, but as something to exploit, consume, or abandon.

Why?

They have been pasturing themselves!
But should not shepherds, rather, pasture sheep?

The lost I will search out, the strays I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, and the sick I will heal; but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd them in judgment (Ez 34:16).

Our psalmist gives us an experiential expression of having a good Shepherd.
Psalm 23 reverses that stripping away of moral worth and restores the reality that we are valued, protected, and loved

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
Beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.

He guides me in right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
With your rod and your staff
that give me courage.

You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.

Only goodness and kindness will follow me
all the days of my life;
And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.

Reflection

The example of Ezekiel and Psalm 23 are beautiful and agricultural expressions of the experiences of having bad and good shepherds. In the Gospel, Jesus moves the problem from shepherd and sheep to person and person. When another person’s blessing becomes a threat to me, I have begun reducing that person to a comparison rather than receiving them as a neighbor.

Generosity brings joy. When another person’s blessing does not awaken joy in us, something within us needs examination.

Are you envious because I am generous?

Personal Reflection

If it ever happens that you are envious rather than joyful for another’s blessings, ask yourself: What has stolen my Joy?
Try instead to remember: The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081926.cfm

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

Greetings on this the Tuesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
Readings: Ezekiel 28:1-10; Deuteronomy 32:26-27ab, 27cd-28, 30, 35cd-36ab; Matthew 19:23-30

Summary

There are two axioms I want to pin to this reflection as a sort of translation of the story.

(1) I am a self-made man (in its extreme: I am a God).
(2) The Rich man is anyone who has more than me.

In our first reading today, the prince of Tyre is the self-made man. At least in his eyes. Ezekiel has none of it. The NABRE commentary on this reading says:

Ezekiel mocks the arrogance of Tyre’s leader, who mistakes the city’s commercial success for evidence of his divinity. At the hands of a foreign army, commissioned by the only God worthy of the name, this leader dies a humiliating, unceremonious death (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/ezekiel/28?1).

In our responsorial, taken from the Song of Moses in the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses recalls despite all the riches, provisions, and divine care the people received they turned away from the Lord and sought their ‘no god’. The effects caused chaos and ruin. They didn’t realize how rich they really were. Nevertheless, the Lord comes to their aid again:

Surely, the LORD will do justice for his people; on his servants he will have pity. When he sees their strength is gone, and neither bond nor free is left (Dt 32:36).

Reflection

Jesus Christ became poor although he was rich So that by his poverty you might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Rich, how?

In direct reversal of the two axioms:
(1) I am not a self-made man but a beloved child of God who showers me with blessings.
(2) My riches are ultimately not of cattle and money but love and relationship.

The First Disciples
Then Peter said to him in reply, “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us? (Mt 19:27). For Peter and the disciples who gave much, much was given.

For All of Us
And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life (Mt 19:29).

Personal Reflection

Rich in what?

The Lord blesses us constantly. We run into trouble when we ascribe our success to our efforts alone. We run into trouble when the Rich is always someone else who has more (as if we are exempt from charity).

Be rich in Jesus.

Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081826.cfm

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

Greetings on this the Monday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
Readings: Ezekiel 24:15-23; Deuteronomy 32:18-19, 20, 21; Matthew 19:16-22

Summary

How many of you have been a part of the Strategic Planning for your company? Or sat through the annual All Employee meeting to find out the goals for the next fiscal year?

• The goals are laid out – near term, mid-year and End of Year metrics.
• The implementation is set forth – close business lines, open business lines and introduce new products.
• The policy and procedures follow – the rules in which we engage in the implementation of the goals.

In our first reading today, Ezekiel reminds us that life doesn’t go according to our plans. Plan all you want and life will surprise you every time.

The word of the LORD came to me: Son of man, by a sudden blow I am taking away from you the delight of your eyes (Ez 24:15-16).

The warning was not arbitrary. Ezekiel’s personal loss becomes a sign of the consequences of a disobedience already baked into the life of the people. The kind of disobedience that is like a Strategic Plan gone wrong.

Reflection

In our gospel portion today, The Rich Young Man, he was working on his Strategic Plan. His plan already covered good behavior toward his fellow man. But he knew, it was missing something. You have forgotten God who gave you birth. (Deut 32:18a). God wasn’t in the plans but he didn’t realize it.

Of the two instructions Jesus gave him, (1) “go, sell what you have and give to the poor“; and (2) “Then come, follow me” were given in sequence not by necessity but by frame of reference. He was stuck in planning mode and Jesus answered him in planning mode. Following is the key goal. Timing of the dispossession of other things is an implementation.

Borrowing from the gospel of Mark: Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, “You are lacking in one thing (Mk 10:21). In the end, that one thing is ME.

Our canticle gives us the deeper meaning of Jesus’ response.

You were unmindful of the Rock that begot you. You forgot the God who gave you birth (Deut 32:18).

Personal Reflection

Before we start the day today, let us not forget who made us. Let us not lack the one thing we need to be ‘perfect’. Jesus, who is. God has the right Strategic Plan.

Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081726.cfm

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

Greetings on this the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: Isaiah 56:1, 6-7; Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8; Romans 11:13-15, 29-32; Matthew 15:21-28

Summary

At the Vigil Mass yesterday, Fr. Tom gave a wonderful homily “What would you do for love?” on The Canaanite Woman’s Faith. I attached it here. After, or instead of, reading my reflection you can watch his homily. His homily starts at 16:52.

Still here? It was a great homily, yes?

Jesus’ disciples came and asked him, “Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.” (Mt 15:23)

• We can think of a million reasons to reject another person. The Lord needs only one reason to accept a person: His own Divine Love.
• How many have we shut out of the sanctuary of the Church, from Holy Communion, and the Sanctuary of the Holy Altar?

Then Jesus said to her in reply,
“O woman, great is your faith!
Let it be done for you as you wish.” (Mt 15:28)

Reflection

In our first and second readings today, sacred scripture outlines openness to the Gentiles and the excluded into the life of faith.

The Foreigner (Canaanite Woman)

The foreigners who join themselves to the LORD,
ministering to him,
loving the name of the LORD,
and becoming his servants—
all who keep the sabbath free from profanation
and hold to my covenant,
them I will bring to my holy mountain
and make joyful in my house of prayer (Isa 56:6-7a).

The Eunuch (transgender persons are not outside God’s invitation)

For thus says the LORD:
To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths,
who choose what pleases me,
and who hold fast to my covenant.
I will give them, in my house
and within my walls, a monument and a name*
Better than sons and daughters;
an eternal name, which shall not be cut off, will I give them. (Isa 56:4-5).

In our second reading, Paul supplies the reason: “the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.” Our first instinct may be to send someone away. God’s movement is toward mercy.

Personal Reflection

With compassion and generosity, and with hope for the continuing conversion required of us all, we shall welcome everyone.
Send her away? NO!

Thus says the LORD:
Observe what is right, do what is just;
for my salvation is about to come,
my justice, about to be revealed. (Isa 56:1).

For my house shall be called
a house of prayer for all peoples. (Isa 56:7c).

The promise and hope of the psalmist should keep our horizon heavenly.

May God have pity on us and bless us;
may he let his face shine upon us.
So may your way be known upon earth;
among all nations, your salvation.

May the nations be glad and exult
because you rule the peoples in equity;
the nations on the earth you guide.

May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you!
May God bless us,
and may all the ends of the earth fear him!
(Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8)

The caution is this observation: God widens the circle while religious people are tempted to narrow it.
The reality is exclusion has sometimes been driven by something other than the mind of Christ.

Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081626.cfm

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

Greetings on this the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Readings: 1 Chronicles 15:3-4, 15-16; 16:1-2; Psalm 132:6-7, 9-10, 13-14; 1 Corinthians 15:54b-57; Luke 11:27-28

Summary

They brought in the ark of God and set it within the tent
which David had pitched for it.
Then they offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings to God.
When David had finished offering up the burnt offerings and peace offerings,
he blessed the people in the name of the Lord (1 Chr 16:1-2).

Lord, go up to the place of your rest, you and the ark of your holiness (Ps 132:8).

Death is swallowed up in victory.
Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?
(1 Cor 15:54c-55)

Ark of the New Covenant (Mary)

While Jesus was speaking,
a woman from the crowd called out and said to him,
“Blessed is the womb that carried you
and the breasts at which you nursed.”
He replied,
“Rather, blessed are those
who hear the word of God and observe it.” (Lk 11:27-28)

Reflection

Jesus does not diminish his mother’s blessedness; he reveals its deepest source: she heard the Word of God and observed it.

The Assumption of the Blessed Mother was widely held from antiquity and formally defined as dogma on November 1, 1950, by Pope Pius XII. We should take comfort that the Lord is with us in life, in transitus, and with Him in glory.

In a particular way his Mother. Wouldn’t you be surprised if it were not so? Even so, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it. Jesus has overcome death in his own person, for the whole of humanity, and we see that victory already realized in a particular way in his mother.

Personal Reflection

In NYC there is a joke that says all Italian men talk about two things: their Mom and baseball.
I can attest.

When it came to the graveside service for Mom, I used my own hands to set down her cremated remains into the grave to rest with her beloved Uncle Tony. So, yeah, if I could have, the same as Jesus, the same.

Have no fear of death in its ultimate power. It is but a transitus to the Father.

Franciscan: https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/assumption-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary/
Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081526-Vigil

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

Greetings on this the Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr
Readings: Ezekiel 16:1-15, 60, 63; Isaiah 12:2-3, 4bcd, 5-6; Matthew 19:3-12

Summary

Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever? (Mt 19:3b).

This ‘test’ or dialog with the Lord sits at the very top of the list of questions for the Lord and for the leadership. It extends well beyond the question of marriage proper but grounds all future questions of accommodation, leniency, restitution and reconciliation. I propose it is a question just below the importance of the question: Are you the Christ? It is, to reframe it: What is marital love? And, What does marital justice look like? Jesus answers with the characteristics of love.

Let’s look at the direct answer.

He said in reply, "Have you not read that from the beginning
the Creator made them male and female and said,
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?
So they are no longer two, but one flesh.
Therefore, what God has joined together, man must not separate." (Mt 19:4-6)

It’s straightforward but not the final answer. It is the basis by which we judge for particular and necessary consideration for the life of the people (unless the marriage is unlawful (Mt 19:9). The broader dispute over what grounds could justify divorce stood at the center of the disagreement between the schools of Hillel and Shammai. The question reflects the larger Jewish dispute over how broadly Moses’ divorce provision should be interpreted. Jesus answers by moving behind the dispute itself to the purpose of creation.

Reflection

Our first reading today considers our pride (the language is NOT gender specific – men and women both), our greed and our failure to protect the children. These are unlawful in the deeper moral sense: violations of covenant, dignity, and love.

But you trusted in your own beauty and used your renown to serve as a prostitute. You poured out your prostitution on every passerby—let it be his. You took the splendid gold and silver ornaments that I had given you and made for yourself male images and served as a prostitute with them. The sons and daughters you bore for me you took and offered as sacrifices for them to devour! Was it not enough that you had become a prostitute? (Ez 16:15,17,20).

Before we cast the stone of divorce, we are expected to come to terms with our own shortcomings. What is unlawful is how we treat each other.

For I will re-establish my covenant with you, that you may know that I am the LORD, that you may remember and be ashamed, and never again open your mouth because of your disgrace, when I pardon you for all you have done—oracle of the Lord GOD (Ez 16:62-63).

Our responsorial (taken from Isaiah) brings us to a higher perspective. In all our relationships, relying upon and imitating the divine expression of relationship.

God indeed is my savior;
I am confident and unafraid.
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and he has been my savior.
With joy you will draw water
at the fountain of salvation. (Isa 12:2-3)

Personal Reflection

I wish for each of you a happy life, married, single or divorced. “What God has joined together, no human being must separate” cannot be used to demand that someone remain physically exposed to violence, coercion, or danger.

The unlawful begins with our actions in contradiction to the promises of becoming one, acting like one and being one human family.

A marriage may be lawful in bond while becoming unlawful in behavior; the Church’s challenge is to honor both truths without confusing either one for the whole truth.

Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081426.cfm

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry