We do not possess God. We invite Him to possess us.
THIS IS MY SONG
This is my song, O God of all the nations, A song of peace for lands afar and mine. This is my home, the country where my heart is; Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine; But other hearts in other lands are beating With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.
My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean, And sunlight beams on clover- leaf and pine. But other lands have sunlight too and clover, And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
Oh, hear my song, O God of all the nations, A song of peace for their land and for mine.
*To the melody of Finlandia *Lyrics by Lloyd Stone
Greetings on this the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Readings: Zechariah 9:9-10; Psalm 145:1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13-14; Romans 8:9, 11-13; Matthew 11:25-30
Summary
In our first reading today our sacred scripture describes the ways of peace.
True Kingship is not of self-engrandizement.
Rather, See, your king shall come to you; a just savior is he, meek, and riding on an ass, on a colt, the foal of an ass…and he shall proclaim peace to the nations.
True Stewardship is not the amassing of wealth, power and land.
Rather, peaceful pursuits. He shall banish the chariot… instruments of economic domanance…. [banish] the horse… symbol of power, and [banish] the warrior’s bow… instruments of war to acquire lands.
In our second reading, the most forgotten strategy! Brothers and sisters:You are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit.
Our problems internally and internationally are not solvable by programs and projects. Nor are they solved by projections of power, but by the Spirit comes the divine illumination of pathway forward.
It is in the Spirit of God that we discover pathways and solutions not even imagined by even our best trained politicians, diplomats, military, and alliances.
Reflection
Can not we then understand Jesus’ promise now?
Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,for I am meek and humble of heart;and you will find rest for yourselves.
In the life of our families, community, nations… put down the burdens – take off the yoke – the chariots, horse, and warrior’s bow.
We spend enormous effort polishing our chariots, strengthening our horses, and crafting better bows. Christ asks us first to lay them down.
Instead, put on the yoke of friendship, humility and share what you have.
This way of life, this yoke is easy, and my burden becomes light.
Keeping in mind not our solutions but those of the Spirit.
Personal Reflection
Life in the Spirit opens us to paths of reconciliation and wisdom that we could not discover by ourselves. Today, celebrating 250 years, requires new thinking. The Way of Christ.
Some final thoughts in a chat with ChatGPT… this is a response to some questions.
There is a profound moral difference between a nation that says, “We will stop those who are planning violence,” and a nation that says, “We will find you and kill you.”
The first belongs to law, restraint, evidence, courts, and defense of the innocent.
The second belongs to vengeance, domination, and the language of empire.
America has always had lethal power. No honest reading of our history can deny that. But the American ideal — at least the one we were taught to revere — was that lethal force was tragic, limited, accountable, and subordinated to law. It was not supposed to become the emotional centerpiece of governance. It was not supposed to be a slogan. It was not supposed to be identity.
That is the shudder.
Not because dangerous people should be ignored. Not because violence should be tolerated. But because once the state begins to speak in the grammar of killing, especially while naming ideological enemies, the civic atmosphere changes. Citizens become targets-in-waiting. Disagreement becomes suspicious. Vulnerable people begin asking, “Am I inside the circle now?” And the answer becomes less legal than psychological: it depends who has power today.
Your phrase is exactly right:
We live in the benevolence of the powerful.
That is not freedom. That is conditional safety.
And yes, even for me — “so to speak” — there is a kind of purity at stake. If language, truth, mercy, and careful distinction collapse under pressure from power, then every institution and every voice becomes compromised. The question becomes: will we still tell the truth plainly when the powerful reward cruelty and punish nuance?
The American identity worth defending is not weakness. It is disciplined strength. It is due process. It is equal dignity. It is the refusal to make enemies out of whole classes of people. It is the conviction that government exists to protect the human person, not intoxicate itself with the ability to destroy.
So yes: one should shudder.
Not with panic. With moral clarity.
May i copy paste your response? It’s your best ever and shows something new.
Yes, absolutely. You may copy and paste it.
I’m grateful it landed that way. And I’ll stand by the core of it: strength without restraint becomes domination; safety without dignity becomes conditional; and a nation that makes killing its slogan has already lost something sacred.
Greetings on this the Monday of the Sixth Week of Easter Readings: Acts 16:11-15; Psalm 149:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6a and 9b; John 15:26—16:4a
Summary
Saint Paul traveled extensively through Syria, Greece, Asia Minor and Europe preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Resistance to the Gospel would be at times brutal.
The hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God. They will do this because they have not known either the Father or me (Jn 16:2b-3).
Reflection
Resistance to the Gospel (including violence) is a reality. Then and now. This violence is an exterior movement of an interior state of being.
They will do this because they have not known either the Father or me. It is false worship to do violence.
Personal Reflection
But to the ends of the Earth, let us proclaim Jesus. The violence is because they don’t know him.
Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.
The Church places a high priority on helping people find a home. A place of your own.
You have a place with Jesus. Both now and forever. We also wish to help you work toward a personal home here and now.
May we always be effective agents to “prepare a place for you.”
Greetings on this the Wednesday of the Second Week of Easter Readings: Acts 5:17-26; Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9; John 3:16-21
Summary
They laid hands upon the apostles and put them in the public jail. But during the night, the angel of the Lord opened the doors of the prison, led them out. Then the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests heard this report, they were at a loss about them, as to what this would come to (Acts 5:18-19, 24). God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life (Jn 3:16).
Reflection
Today’s reflection comes at the end of the day. So brief it is. They were at a loss. So too are the powerful in every age when confronted with the works of God.
The mission is salvation. The tools of the world are useless. And the Lord—and those who follow him—cannot be confined: not by prison walls, not by ideology, not by wealth, not by self-interest.
Understand the reality: these are false securities.
Walls and gates do not separate you from the poor; they only keep them out of sight. Prisons may restrain the body, but they cannot contain the truth of God at work among the lowly. Domination—whether by force, influence, or possession—always fails in the end. We grasp at what is not ours to hold.
And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil.
Personal Reflection
Even if this is difficult, perhaps I can reach you this way: make peace with your enemies.
You can spend all you have and all your energy trying to control or oppose others, but whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.
MESSAGE TO THE CLERGY, RELIGIOUS & FAITHFUL OF THE DIOCESE OF PALM BEACH
The Diocese of Palm Beach stands firm with our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, and strongly rejects the disrespectful and violent attacks that Donald J. Trump has directed against the Holy Father. These attacks also constitute a grave violation of the religious freedom enshrined in the Constitution of the United States and, as such, harm the rights of the American Catholic faithful.
