19 November 2025 - faithful in small things

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

he proceeded to tell a parable because he was near Jerusalem
and they thought that the Kingdom of God
would appear there immediately.

It was widely believed that once the messiah appeared the Kingdom of God would follow almost immediately. Many modern commentators seem to believe that even early Christians were surprised by the delay in the full realization of the Kingdom on earth. Whether they were or not we will not speculate. Yet if they were, they need not have been, since Jesus himself told a parable precisely to explain it. There would be time after his coming when he was visible absent, before his return, and the final establishing of the Kingdom. He explained with what his disciples would need to contend during this time since there would be those who would say that they did not "want this man to be our king", and who would do whatever they could to harass and interfere with the followers of his who remained during his absence.

A nobleman went off to a distant country
to obtain the kingship for himself and then to return.
He called ten of his servants and gave them ten gold coins
and told them, 'Engage in trade with these until I return.

Jesus brought his risen human nature into heaven, there to share the throne of kingship that was properly God's own. He planned to return to bring the full blessings of that kingship to the world through the resurrection on the last day. But he did not plan to do this immediately. In order to allow a full and free response to his plan he gave his disciples time to put the gifts he gave them to use, good or otherwise. By doing so they could open up their capacity to participate in his Kingdom when it arrived. What mattered to Jesus was not that they prove themselves by cleverness, skill, or success. Rather, he was looking for them to demonstrate faithfulness. The reward of cities was entirely disproportionate to the small level of faithfulness that was required of them. But it was precisely this faithfulness, and not the results, on which they were judged. Everyone who even chose to participate received a reward that ridiculously exceeded their efforts. True, the one who made ten additional coins seemed to receive a larger result, as though his effort was involved. But it is more likely the case that he was able to produce such results because he was more willing to trust in the master's gifts, which functioned almost automatically. He had perhaps opened himself more completely to trust in the master and thus had a larger capacity to receive the master's blessing when he returned.

'Sir, here is your gold coin;
I kept it stored away in a handkerchief,
for I was afraid of you, because you are a demanding man;
you take up what you did not lay down
and you harvest what you did not plant.'

The man that returned the master's gold coin with nothing to show for it was punished, not because he failed, but because he was faithless. The master had said "Engage in trade" and he had instead hidden the gift away, where it was powerless to bear fruit. This is a common temptation for us as well. It feels safe, in the moment, to hide our gifts and not take the risk of obeying the command of Jesus. But it is only when we trust him enough to put them to use that they can bear fruit. And it is only by opening ourselves in trust to his will that we grow in our capacity to receive the reward he wants to give us. This reward is not cities so much as it is more of himself. 

He replied, 'I tell you,
to everyone who has, more will be given,
but from the one who has not,
even what he has will be taken away.

Our stewardship during our mortal lives is a feed forward mechanism in which the more we participate the more we grow. But unwillingness to participate makes it increasingly hard to begin. We should remember our trust in the master who has given us the command to engage in trade and therefore also trust in the power of the coin of the Spirit with which he has entrusted us. And we should remember that he does not necessarily expect great things, but rather faithfulness in the little things, like Terese of Lisieux and Theresa of Calcutta were fond of repeating.

Newsboys - Go

 

18 November 2025 - receiving him with joy

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

Now a man there named Zacchaeus,
who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, 
was seeking to see who Jesus was;
but he could not see him because of the crowd,
for he was short in stature. 

Neither our natural gifts nor the circumstances of our lives are enough to automatically ensure that we will get a good look at Jesus when he passes through. We may be fairly sure that if Zacchaeus had responded with indifference the whole crowd with all of its commotion would have passed him by as though he were not there. It seemed evident that Jesus was aware of his desire to see him and responded to that desire.

So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus,
who was about to pass that way.

Jesus looked up at the tree, unsurprised, as though it was always his plan to meet Zacchaeus at this moment in this place. Because it was. He wasn't inconvenienced or deterred from other aspects of his ministry by the intrusion of this chief tax collector onto his route. It was always a part of his plan, and in this moment, the main event. In fact, it seemed that Jesus was the first one to say something to Zacchaeus, rather than the other way around. Who knows with what pretense Zacchaeus might have been planning to plead with Jesus, as the prodigal had been in returning to his father. But before he had a chance to do so he heard, "Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house". 

And he came down quickly and received him with joy. 

At first Zacchaeus must have thought that he was the one taking the initiative to see Jesus. We already said that without that initiative it was indeed likely that Jesus would have passed him by. But Jesus himself was aware of the initiative Zacchaeus would show, because he himself was the one who made the hearts of all, including Zacchaeus, and placed a desire for himself within them. Even the grace that made him respond to this desire was a gift. It wasn't as though he could brag about the lengths to which he went in order to see Jesus, since he knew full well that he had been drawn to him, as if by a kind of spiritual magnetism. There were also those who felt this same spiritual force but found it repulsive. These were the people who grumbled when they saw the deep and immediate connection between Zacchaeus and Jesus while they themselves remained disinterested on the peripheries. They remained dispassionate observers while Zacchaeus himself was entirely transformed.

But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord,
“Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor,
and if I have extorted anything from anyone
I shall repay it four times over.”

Zacchaeus was changed in such a way that he previously priorities were no longer important. The desire for wealth that had determined his life path until that point was gone. The wealth he had amassed was now a resource to help him respond to the grace of Jesus in his life. We note that he had not been required to do this in advance in order to prove himself to Jesus. All that was necessary for Jesus to accept him was for Zacchaeus to respond to the desire that Jesus himself had first placed in his heart. These works did not somehow merit his salvation, but were rather its fruit. But they were important as evidence, signs that the power of Jesus had been effective in him.

And Jesus said to him,
“Today salvation has come to this house
because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. 
For the Son of Man has come to seek
and to save what was lost.”

Like Zacchaeus, and indeed, like all people, Jesus has placed a desire for himself in our hearts. But we can take it for granted, like the crowds, and respond to him only with curiosity. Like them we might be too embarrassed to stand out or refuse to be inconvenienced in the ways that might be necessary. But if we don't respond vigorously to the fervor Jesus himself wants to give us we inherently limit the extent to which he can transform us. We have some measure of 'free will', but especially a 'free won't', one which we must be cautious to not exercise when Jesus is passing by.

When I lie down in sleep,
I wake again, for the LORD sustains me.
I fear not the myriads of people
arrayed against me on every side.

Songs In His Presence - Prayer Of Augustine

 

17 November 2025 - a see change

 

 

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

"Jesus of Nazareth is passing by."
He shouted, "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!"

This blind beggar nevertheless had a spiritual vision that caused him to realize something that was not apparent to everyone in the crowd. The crowd pointed to his apparent origins in Nazareth. But the blind man called to him as the messianic Son of David. The crowd assumed that Jesus had better things to do. But Jesus came to give sight to the blind. The blind man, sensing this, refused to be silenced by the crowd. In fact, the more they tried to quiet him the louder he became. The voice of the crowd was trying to exert an influence over the man that may be familiar to us as well. It told him that Jesus was distant, irrelevant, and indifferent. It attempted to drown out the quiet possibility of hope. If the man had only been testing a theory he probably would have given up. But he had faith. He could already imagine the way that Jesus would change his world and he refused to surrender that image.

"What do you want me to do for you?"
He replied, "Lord, please let me see."
Jesus told him, "Have sight; your faith has saved you."

His faith was what allowed Jesus bring what he imagined into reality. His spiritual vision would henceforth be reflected in the physical world as well. His blindness must been a true hardship. He no doubt wanted to experience the fullness of natural life as God intended it. But his spiritual insight and his faith made it seem likely that he was asking for something deeper along with his natural sight. We may also imagine that he was asking for the purity that allowed those who possessed it to see God, as Jesus taught in the beatitudes (see Matthew 5:8). This was the vision that can eventually make us like God when, at last, he see him as he is (see First John 3:2).

He immediately received his sight
and followed him, giving glory to God.

We who have been blessed with natural sight ought to remember to be thankful for that gift, since it is easy to take for granted, not having had to survive without it. But we should also come to Jesus and ask with faith for him to increase our spiritual vision, our ability to see him in a way that makes us become more like him. When our spiritual vision is healthy we are able to perceive the truth in spite of the indifference of the crowds, or even, as in the book of Maccabees, their active hostility. There are a thousand different directions and angles from which attempts to obscure the truth seem to come these days. Our physical vision sometimes seem to only make us enter more deeply into the confusion. Without spiritual sight we will almost certainly be lost. Lord, please let us see.

Sonicflood - In The Secret 

16 November 2025 - there will not be left a stone upon another

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

While some people were speaking about
how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings,
Jesus said, "All that you see here--
the days will come when there will not be left
a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down."

If we become too attached to the beauty of this world, a beauty which, while good, is still nevertheless only temporary, how will we respond when it eventually crumbles to dust and fades to nothing? Buildings may collapse, human institutions might fail, and even the apparent permanence of nature will eventually be revealed to be transient. If we place our eternal hope in temporary things we will be at extreme risk when those things inevitably eventually fail. Experiences like these make us all too ready to be deceived by false messiahs and their false promises. We will hear implausible candidates claiming "I am he", and we will want to follow them and believe them even though a part of us may know better. They seem to offer something immediate in which we can invest our hopes in lieu of the disappoint of whatever recent collapse brought us to despair. As our boat through this world of time spring leaks and to sink we become willing to turn to anyone who promises to patch us up, whether or not there is any real reason to think they can do so. 

When you hear of wars and insurrections,
do not be terrified; for such things must happen first,
but it will not immediately be the end."

We need a different strategy. In the face of terrors we must not be terrified (see Jeremiah 1:17). We must instead remember that such things are allowed in the divine plan. We must also remember that it is the divine drama unfolding that will dictate our destiny, not the fickle vicissitudes of chance and circumstance. If we believe that our story is fundamentally natural or political than circumstances might well seem to indicate the end of the world. But we are living for another world, a world without end. When we remember this we are able to keep our cool, not only when things around us are bad, but even when we ourselves are impacted by negative circumstances. We can face persecution without being rendered useless and ineffective by fear. In fact, in some way, when we remember whose story it is of which we are meant to be part, we become even more effective in times of trial, since such times lead to us "giving testimony".

Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand,
for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking
that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.

We don't need to calculate exactly what will lead to our giving testimony in order to be able to successfully do so when the time comes. Obviously we should strive to know Jesus and his teaching. But we need not predict exactly how circumstances will require us to speak. And in fact, the more rigidly we plan in advance, the less the Spirit will be free to move in the moment. It's is good to have the raw materials of knowledge handy, good to have familiarity with the Scriptures and the teachings of the Church, but precisely so that the Spirit himself can more easily call them to our minds in the moment they are needed. He can go further, when he desires, by giving us words of knowledge and words of wisdom that transcend anything we previously knew or could articulate. We should definitely try to be open to these. But we may also say that we shouldn't rely on them entirely. 

You will be hated by all because of my name,
but not a hair on your head will be destroyed.
By your perseverance you will secure your lives.

There will be many reasons we will want to give up along the way. Many things that were seemingly causes for hope will fail. It won't always be smooth sailing. We will long to see the Lord move in history, but instead see many imposters and false messiahs pretending to bring salvation, while only making things worse. But when our lives are situated in the worldview taught by Jesus we will not despair and we will not give up. We will then remember that he commanded "perseverance", rather than any kind of one time set it and forget it spirituality. It is clear he didn't promise to spare us from every storm we might encounter. But he did promise to be with us always, even in the storms. When we remember to listen, we will even then hear his still small voice speaking, giving us the guidance we need.

 The Dwelling Of God Is Among You

 

15 November 2025 - motivated prayer

 

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

Jesus told his disciples a parable
about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. 

The temptation, of course, was to become weary and lose heart. When prayer did not receive an instant response it was tempting to assume that one was speaking to an unjust judge, too concerned with his own affairs to answer to be bothered, although it was well within his power to set things right. It was hard to pray for things that were obviously good and not receive them. It made it easy to believe that God was morally ambiguous at best and not truly good at worst. It made it easy to fall for the same temptation as Adam and Eve who wanted to be like God, knowing good and evil independently, apart from him. 

He said, “There was a judge in a certain town
who neither feared God nor respected any human being. 

Phase one of a good approach to not losing heart is to recognize when we begin to imagine a caricature of God rather than God himself. We know that God must be good since he is the source of all goodness and since he himself is what we ultimately desire in all good things. Our very ability to sense and pursue the good is itself his gift. Therefore, if he does not immediately respond to our urgent requests it cannot be because he isn't good.

For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought,
‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, 
because this widow keeps bothering me
I shall deliver a just decision for her
lest she finally come and strike me.’” 

Phase two of our plan to not lose heart is to plan on the need for persistence. When we sometimes hear of prayers that are answered immediately, precisely when they were needed, it makes us want to believe that all prayers will be answered on a similarly expedited schedule. Sometimes prayers are answered immediately, when this is part of God's plan. But oftentimes, for his own reasons, reasons which we have resolved to believe are good ones, he does not answer immediately. When we don't plan on an immediate response he is certainly free to surprise us with one. But then if we don't receive one we don't succumb to disappoint. We have planned from the first to pray as long as was necessary to either attain or desire or to have our heart changed by God. It has often been said that this purification and expansion of our desire for the good is an important part of why perseverance in prayer is required of us. Does it always seem to us to be a worthy trade for putting off a solution to something that could be solved immediately, something which is often both urgent and dire? Perhaps not, but since we have committed ourselves to believing that God is always good even when can't see it or understand, we believe it in this case as well. And so we don't lose heart. And so we ask and keep on asking. 

The Lord said, “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. 
Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones
who call out to him day and night? 
Will he be slow to answer them? 
I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. 

We now have belief in God's goodness and reason enough to trust him when he tells us to not give up on prayer. But we have still more. We have assurance that he will answer eventually. It may not be exactly according to the form for which we asked. But we know that he is a Father who delights to give good gifts to his children. We know that he will withhold nothing from us that is truly good. He knows even better than we ourselves what will truly satisfy our desires. This is what he has planned for those who do not give up on pursuing him. 

Matt Maher - Wait

 

14 November 2025 - not delugeonal

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

As it was in the days of Noah,
so it will be in the days of the Son of Man;
they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage up to the day
that Noah entered the ark,
and the flood came and destroyed them all.

In past times the world seemed to be going on as it always had. People were more or less hypnotized by the routine of daily life, unable to recognize the signs, or to heed the warnings of impending judgment. Those who had sufficient faith to respond to the call of God seemed to others to be at least eccentric and possibly crazy. If one was not regularly in conversation with God, the construction of an ark didn't seem particularly useful before the rain began to fall. Noah's faith allowed him to do what would later be proven to be necessary before it was obviously so. It gave him the courage to stand out and endure ridicule for the sake of obedience. 

they were eating, drinking, buying,
selling, planting, building;
on the day when Lot left Sodom

Once we begin to believe and obey the word of God we must still be cautious about the temptation to look back to what we left behind. This was a problem for those who wandered in the desert after being liberated from Egypt. It was a problem for Lot's wife. It was the reason why Jesus said that those who looked back after putting their hand to plow were unfit for the Kingdom (see Luke 9:62). It wasn't that he didn't want them. The issue in all of these cases was that they were compromised by a kind of gravity that pulled them toward the earthly and away from the spiritual. They had tasted freedom, but looking back caused them not to pursue with the vigor that was necessary to reach salvation.

On that day, someone who is on the housetop
and whose belongings are in the house
must not go down to get them,
and likewise one in the field
must not return to what was left behind.

We need to reverse the perspective we typically have in which the things of this world are those that are urgent, and the spiritual are secondary. We must be willing to make a break with any temporary material goods if God's call demands it of us. We must be willing, at least virtually, to leave behind all we have to respond to his summons. 

I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed;
one will be taken, the other left.
And there will be two women grinding meal together;
one will be taken, the other left.

We may look almost identical, from an external perspective, to others in the world. But our destiny is not necessarily the same as theirs. If we don't insist on clinging to our current conditions exactly as we now experience them we will be free to receive the salvific work of God in our lives. Whether he desires to keep us here where we are, saving us from exile, or whether he desires to move us to a place of refuge from impending strife, we can have the freedom to follow him. It will help if we make a spiritual resolution, aided by grace, empowered by the Spirit, never to choose anything instead of his will. Though we are fallen and fickle and liable to disobedience he will nevertheless help us to keep such a noble commitment, since it is he himself who inspired us to make it. We must not be like those described in the reading from Wisdom who lost themselves in the beauty of created things. We should instead rejoice in that beauty as a revelation of the one who created it all.

For from the greatness and the beauty of created things
their original author, by analogy, is seen.

13 November 2025 - the tension between already and not yet

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

"The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed,
and no one will announce, 'Look, here it is,' or, 'There it is.'
For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you."

The Kingdom of God was already present among them in one way, but not yet in another. It was present because the King himself was among them. It was yet to come because its fullness would only be revealed after the Son of Man was first taken from them and then returned in glory. Their question of the Pharisees seemed to be motivated by a desire to see some Kingdom scale results produced by Jesus and his disciples. They wanted to see something that they could either dismiss, or, if it was overwhelmingly obvious, that they would have no choice but to accept. But they were currently at a stage of history when the Kingdom still worked in a hidden way, behind the scenes, like a mustard seed, or like yeast that leavened the dough. They were not to judge the mission of Jesus based on results, but rather, on the person of Jesus himself. In some way, Jesus himself was the Kingdom. And this Kingdom was indeed already spreading, since it was present in every heart where Jesus reigned. Obviously the Pharisees, interested in externals, in things that they could control or dismiss according to preference, were not well situated to perceive it. They probably saw themselves as too wise or practical to be fooled by what they might have dismissed as mere rhetoric. And yet the King of the Kingdom was in their midst. It was possible for sincere hearts to perceive it and be transformed. But those who were not sincere seemed to bounce off of their encounters with it, accelerated away in the opposite direction.

Then he said to his disciples,
"The days will come when you will long to see
one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.

The longing to see something solid, some definitive results, would potentially put everyone at risk of accepting something that fell short of the Son of Man and his Kingdom. They would want to see him so much that they would convince themselves that they had in fact seen him. They would long for the coming of his Kingdom so much that they would convince themselves that they had found it fully formed on earth in this or that ideology. They would treat political or religious leaders as though their themselves were the ones who could bring salvation to the world. They might not be fully conscious of it, but their preference for something solid and visible would ultimately make them naive and vulnerable. During this period of history it was important for disciples to remember that the Kingdom was present, but hidden. It made a real impact on history, but from behind the scenes, in a way that required faith to perceive. It was not subjective. It was real enough that an unbiased observer could be convinced. But its presence was not such as to be irrefutable, and wasn't meant to be. The proud in particular would see something far too humble to meet their standards. But if we set our expectations correctly, knowing that the Spirit is at work now, but the fullness of glory is yet to come, we will not be deceived.

For just as lightning flashes
and lights up the sky from one side to the other,
so will the Son of Man be in his day.

The fact that the Kingdom is now somewhat hidden does not mean that it is subjective, or that it will remain obscure forever. There is nothing hidden that will not one day be revealed (see Luke 8:17). Foremost on this list is the Kingdom itself, and the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. This stage of history is meant to give us time to prepare for the final stage. Once his glory is fully revealed their will be no more time to freely turn to him in our hearts. His glory will be irresistible. But he wants us to choose him freely, here and now. And not only that, he wants us to freely share with others what we ourselves have first received (see Matthew 10:8).

Elevation Worship - There Is A King