Finding God In Our Hearts with Msgr. Don Fischer

PRI Reflections on Scripture | Thursday of the 2nd Week of Easter

Gospel John 3:31-36 The one who comes from above is above all. The one who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of earthly things. But the one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. Whoever does accept his testimony certifies that God is trustworthy. For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God. He does not ration his gift of the Spirit. The Father loves the Son and has given everything over to him. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him. Reflection God's voice as it comes to us through Jesus, is a voice of enormous generosity, of a deep longing for everyone to receive everything that they need. He does not ration his gifts. One needs to realize how much God is offering to each of us, and all He asks is that we accept each thing as it comes to our consciousness and not resist it in any way, shape or form, because we don't fully understand it. We’re to live in mystery, and mystery is something that you can only say, I choose to believe rather than say, I know it's right, or I know how it works. It's not knowing how it works, it’s believing that it works. Closing Prayer Father, awaken in us an understanding of your love, your generosity, your abundance and longing to give us everything that we need. Keep us from that narrow view of having to understand something fully before we can accept 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 | Wednesday of the 2nd Week of Easter

Gospel John 3:16-21 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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God. Reflection The intention of God is clearly stated in this passage. He has not come to condemn, which is not necessarily meaning sent to hell, it means that a condemned person has no capacity, no hope that they can ever change. Like a building that’s condemned can't be saved or renovated. So what we're seeing in this is the fact that God’s will is to lift all of us out of darkness, of shame and fear and anger, and yet we can choose not to be lifted out of those things. We can choose the darkness. It’s a frightening thought that we can turn away from everything that we deeply, deeply long for. Closing Prayer Father, You've given us a gift of free will. Help us to ponder the choices that are before us, help us to see the fullness of what each choice creates for us, so that we will see the wisdom and the power of the life that you've called us to live with you, through you, in you, and let us feel and know that light. 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 | Tuesday of the 2nd Week of Easter

Gospel  John 3:7b-15 Jesus said to Nicodemus: "'You must be born from above.' The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus answered and said to him, 'How can this happen?" Jesus answered and said to him, "You are the teacher of Israel and you do not understand this? Amen, amen, I say to you, we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you people do not accept our testimony. If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” Reflection Nicodemus was an unusual Pharisee because he wanted to talk to Jesus. He was interested. He was curious about him, but yet he was still part of that company that was so resistant to anything that Jesus would do or would say. And so when he explains something that is impossible to figure out how it works, and he rejects it, in a sense. Jesus saying, Well, you reject everything. Everything I say you people reject even the most ordinary things that I might say that you could easily understand. You say is wrong. You're not open. You are not a listener to what I'm saying. And you're not open to the unusual things, the impossible things, the unexpected things that I promise you. You need to accept. They were blind, blind guides. Closing Prayer Father, create in us an openness, an expectation to receive that which we cannot understand. Our mind is an important part of who we are, but the imagination in our heart can open us to the ways in which you have promised to live with us and be an instrument through us that we cannot fully understand with the mind. Open our heart, open our imaginations. 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 of Easter

Gospel John 3:1-8 There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. He came to Jesus at night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you are doing unless God is with him." Jesus answered and said to him, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man once grown old be born again? Surely he cannot reenter his mother's womb and be born again, can he?" Jesus answered, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born of water and Spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I told you, 'You must be born from above.' The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." Reflection Nicodemus is a perfect example of life before Jesus. Nicodemus is a human being, and when Jesus talks about the flesh, He is talking about our humanity and what this image in this reading means is that we are living in two worlds, the practical world that we can understand and figure out. And then we are invited into this radically different world that operates in a different way and the idea of cause and effect as we know it, doesn't fit. So this is an invitation to you and to me that something needs to change within us. And if you think it's something you're supposed to do, stop thinking that way. You need to wait, believe, and trust until it's given. You know, you're forgiven and you're filled with this presence. The Closing prayer Father, alone with just our humanity, we are not able to really see and understand how you work in the world. Bless us with insight so that we don't need to know why or how things work, but we need to know that they are working. Bless us with this deep conviction that your kingdom is constantly coming. Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

HOMILY • The 2nd Sunday of Easter

Original Airdate: April 16, 2023 Acts 2:42-47 | 1 Peter 1:3-9 | John 20:19-3 God of everlasting mercy, who in the very recurrence of the Pascal feast kindle the faith of the people you have made your own, increase, we pray, the grace you have bestowed that all may grasp and rightly understand in what fount they have been washed, by whose Spirit they have been reborn, by whose blood they have been redeemed. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever, amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]