Finding God In Our Hearts with Msgr. Don Fischer

PRI Reflections on Scripture | Tuesday of the 2nd Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel  Mark 2:23-28 As Jesus was passing through a field of grain on the sabbath, his disciples began to make a path while picking the heads of grain. At this the Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?” He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry? How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the bread of offering that only the priests could lawfully eat, and shared it with his companions?” Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.” Reflection Religion can become a burden. It can rob us of what the heart of the gospel is proclaiming. Rules, regulations and laws, that was the heart of the Old Testament, and yet it still becomes attractive to so many of us when we think if we only to what we're told, that's enough. But in doing that, we often limit ourselves from who we really are called to become. It's not about knowing what to do and doing it because we're told to. It's about becoming someone and understanding who we are. We move from the law and regulations to true wisdom. That's the promise of healthy religion. Closing Prayer For many people, religion is a burden and often has been something they went to and felt that they were being robbed of the rights that they had or the dignity that they have. Bless us with wisdom not to get caught in that and know that the freedom that God has called us to is always going to be focused on what is life giving for us. Nothing is asked of us that robs us of our value or our dignity. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

PRI Reflections on Scripture | Monday of the 2nd Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel Mark 2:18-22 The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast. People came to Jesus and objected, “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,  but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.” Reflection The custom of fasting in the Old Testament was a discipline of being quiet, not engaged in other activity as we awaited something from God. But whatever we were waiting for is now with us, manifested in Jesus. And what I like about this passage is that it’s trying to say something, you can't take a little of the old and a little of the new and come up with something kind of as a compromise. No, what God is revealing in Jesus is radically new. It's a whole new paradigm, and we need to be sure that we've made that leap, that change into this new world, a world of forgiveness, a world of understanding, a world of compassion and empathy. It's an intoxicating new wine, and we have to accept it. Closing Prayer Father, we’re creatures of habit. We've been taught things about you, when we were very young, perhaps, and they just are sort of what we have as a default when we think of you. Bless us with the ability to allow you to change that which was there into that which should be. That's your promise of grace. And all we need to do is to say yes. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

HOMILY • The 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Original Airdate: January 15, 2023 Isaiah 49:3, 5-6 | 1 Corinthians 1:1-3 | John 1:29-34 Almighty, everliving God, who govern all things, both in heaven and on earth, mercifully hear the pleading of your people and bestow your peace on our times.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever, amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

PRI Reflections on Scripture | Saturday of the 1st Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel Mark 2:13-17 Jesus went out along the sea. All the crowd came to him and he taught them. As he passed by, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting at the customs post. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed Jesus. While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners sat with Jesus and his disciples; for there were many who followed him. Some scribes who were Pharisees saw that Jesus was eating with sinners and tax collectors and said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”  Jesus heard this and said to them, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” Reflection The righteous were the people who followed the law perfectly, knowing that if they follow the law of the temple, they would be blessed. There was a kind of earning salvation, earning favor from God. And what is so beautiful about this is that God is not interested in you winning favor from him. He is only interested in doing the work that he longs to do, and that's to transform us and to heal us. He's like a doctor, and what he wants so much as for us to recognize our dis-ease, our darkness, our fear, our shame, our anger and come to him as we would to a physician say, Help me, heal me. God is a healer and he's not interested in anyone trying to earn his favor. He just wants to change us. Closing Prayer Father, this image has always been such a beautiful way of understanding who you really are. Bless us all with that awareness, your compassion, your understanding, your desire to be the healing force that we all long for, and to bring us into a healthy relationship with ourselves and our neighbors, and you. Thank you for this gift. Help us to be aware of it. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

PRI Reflections on Scripture | Friday of the 1st Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel Mark 2:1-12 When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it became known that he was at home. Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them, not even around the door, and he preached the word to them. They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to him, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves, “Why does this man speak that way?  He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?” Jesus immediately knew in his mind what  they were thinking to themselves,  so he said, “Why are you thinking such things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, pick up your mat and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth” –he said to the paralytic, “I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home.” He rose, picked up his mat at once,  and went away in the sight of everyone. They were all astounded and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.” Reflection There's an important moment in this particular story that I think has to be understood clearly. We when we follow Jesus, when he when God is within us, we don't go around basically and healing every disease, and we don't have demons screaming at us and saying we ought to stop bothering them. No, what all of this is pointing to in this passage is that the real healing that we have to offer one another is in forgiveness. Forgiveness that is more important than any other healing power that Jesus has given to each of us. The power to forgive, to stop the cycle of hate or division, but to bring about a kind of unity that can only be experienced when one has that compassionate forgiveness, filling their heart and offering it to one another. Closing Prayer Father, help us to understand the power of forgiveness, the healing that can happen when we choose always not to judge and not to condemn, but to somehow accept and long for someone who's caught in evil to be transformed by your grace. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]