Continue Christ's Mission of Setting the World on Fire!

 

Deacon Kevin Gingras August 17th, 2025 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081725.cfm

Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10    Psalm 40:2, 3, 4, 18
Hebrews 12:1-4    Luke 12:49-53

Look around you at all that God has given us.   The beauty of nature,  the beautiful lakes and ponds, the big fish we can catch in those lakes and ponds,  our jobs,  families, and our faith.  If you read Genesis, it doesn't look like all of creation was too difficult for God. All of this creation and everything that we have is a gift from God, all but one thing.   Do you know what that one thing is?  Our sin.  It is in our sin that the greatest gift from God becomes necessary. This greatest gift was difficult, and that is the gift of our salvation.  God gave us the gift of His only Son, Jesus Christ, and Jesus was suffering even while waiting to give this gift of salvation to us.  He states that in today’s Gospel from Luke:

How great is my anguish until it is accomplished

Today’s Gospel also tells how Jesus desired to “set the earth on fire” as his cousin, John the Baptist, foretold:

One mightier than I is coming … He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire. (Luke 3:16)

We receive the Holy Spirit with our baptism, and that is further strengthened at our confirmation. It is in our confirmation that we are called to speak the truth, to witness that Jesus came to earth to die for our sins.  The Catechism of the Catholic church tells us:

Confirmation gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ, to confess the name of Christ boldly, and never to be ashamed of the Cross.

Today, we see that Jeremiah spoke the truth. He prophesied of impending divine judgment because of the nation's idolatry, social injustices, and moral decay. Jeremiah also prophesied that the siege of Jerusalem, currently going on by the Babylonians, would be successful and that they would fall under Babylonian captivity as a consequence for their disobedience.

He was trying to get the people to turn back to God.  During a break in the siege of Jerusalem, he went to go visit the property of his ancestors and was accused of desertion.  For that, he was thrown into a cistern to die.  If not for Edeb-melech, the court official, Jeremiah would have died.  

We, too, are called to witness to the truth; we probably won’t suffer such a fate today, however, as I do believe tossing folks into a cistern to die is thankfully illegal.

But hearing the truth is still hard for many people today!  So many of us know people who have attached themselves to this world instead of Heaven.  We have friends, family members, parents, and children, and sometimes we even get dazzled by what this world has to offer, to the point where the thought of Heaven or Hell leaves our minds. We only consider this life here on earth and fail to consider our eternity.  C.S. Lewis warns:

Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth 'thrown in': aim at Earth and you will get neither.

 

Sometimes, when we speak this Godly truth to others, it causes division for us.  Division with family, division with friends. How could it not?  I hope it also causes us to pray, pray hard and mighty prayers to the Holy Spirit for our friends, family, and for ourselves, too!

It is the Holy Spirit who provides the power and strength to live as Christ did.  To resist temptation and be a good example to others.  It is the Holy Spirit that empowers us to share the Gospel with others. Pray to the Holy Spirit this week to attain whatever of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit you might need more of.  Perhaps it’s multiple gifts.  Ask for an increase in wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and/or fear of the Lord so that we can boldly proclaim Christ to others as we are meant to, so we can continue Christ's mission of setting the world on fire!

St. Catherine of Siena tells us: 

Be who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire.

Be Situationally Aware!

 

Deacon Kevin Gingras

July 20th, 2025

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/072025.cfm

Genesis 18:1-10a    Psalm 15:2-3, 3-4, 5

Colossians 1:24-28    Luke 10:38-42

Situational awareness - it seems to be something lacking that plagues society lately.  We are so distracted by all the social media, the phones, computers, and news, it’s no wonder we aren’t aware of where we physically are at a specific point in time.  Folks on the phone block grocery aisles and can’t hear you say excuse me as you try to get past.  Commuters on the highway aren’t aware of others around them as they change lanes or miss the light turning green.  

I am just as guilty.  A few weeks ago, I was in adoration, sitting there with the true presence of Jesus Christ right there in front of me, and then it started to storm outside.  The lightning was vivid even through the chapel’s stained glass windows.  The rain and wind pounded the windows. The rumbles of thunder were loud.  My focus became the storm.  I checked my phone to see where the current lightning was striking and where the storm was heading.  I was no longer situationally aware that I was still in the presence of Christ!  That’s a good segue into today’s readings, I think.

Abraham was situationally aware of his guests.  He did not know that it was angels of God who were visiting him, but he kind of gathered that they were a big deal. It’s also interesting that the text says

The LORD appeared to Abraham by the oak

So this text begins in the singular and Abraham greets the LORD as such, but later on it switches to the second person plural, and the one suddenly becomes three.  This strange change in the number of visitors helps illustrate the mystery of God.  In the next chapter of Genesis, we find that two of the men are identified as angels.  Regardless of that, Abraham was situationally aware that these men were a big deal and looked to be travelers, so he treated them by getting water to wash from the journey, hurriedly preparing them a meal of bread, curds, milk, and meat from a tender choice calf.  Abraham was aware that these visitors were important and acted accordingly.

Next, we hear of Martha, who was not as situationally aware as Abraham today. Martha welcomed Jesus into her home when He came to her village.  She knows it’s Jesus, but she’s so focused on the fact that she’s doing all the work and Mary is just resting and listening to the “Master” that she stops working to attempt to bring Jesus into a bit of a family spat that is brewing.

Martha didn’t have a chance to read St. Paul, it wasn’t written yet, so she never heard:

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake

And therefore, Martha wasn’t rejoicing when she suffered in aggravation at her lazy sister Mary! I can relate to Martha based on my time in adoration, in front of the Lord Jesus, yet focused on the storm around me.  Martha’s main issue was her lack of focus.  She was torn between her service and preparation for her very important guest and her lazy sister Mary, who wasn’t helping.  Mary was focused.  Martha was so situationally unaware that she even tells the Son of God what to do!

Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.

My wife is quick to remind me that later in scripture, we see Martha doing much better, serving without complaint, and she accepted her correction from Jesus and learned from what was said to her. 

Now let’s focus on the tabernacle we have here in the Church.  That tabernacle is situationally unaware of what it currently holds inside - how could it be, it has no mind, it’s simply wood, metal, and some cloth.  You cannot fault it for not knowing it holds within the precious body and soul of the true divinity of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist!

What about us?  Most of us today will come up to receive Jesus Christ at communion time.  We cannot be situationally unaware after we do!  We become a living tabernacle!  Ask the Holy Spirit for help today so that we may be truly aware of who we now contain inside of us, the true body, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ Himself. Take time to reverently return to your pews and kneel, offering prayers of thanksgiving for the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is present inside of us, making us all living tabernacles!

St. Teresa of Calcutta reminds us:

"Every Holy Communion makes you a more perfect tabernacle of God".

The Love of the Trinity spills over onto us!

Deacon Kevin Gingras

June 15th, 2025

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061525.cfm

Proverbs 8:22-31    Psalm 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9

Romans 5:1-5    John 16:12-15

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.  That was the sign-off to Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, so Paul knew of the Trinity early on.

We also see the Holy Trinity in Genesis during creation.  God, the Creator, starts to speak things into existence. Then God said, “Let there be light, and there was light”. Then the dome, land, vegetation, the sun, moon, fish, birds, and living creatures on the earth.  All these things God spoke into being, and suddenly it changed.  

Then God said: Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness.

When it comes time to create male and female, God uses a plural term; the Trinity was there at creation because the Trinity is eternal.

We can see the Trinity in Scripture at the Baptism of the Lord:

After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened [for him], and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove [and] coming upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, saying, “This is my beloved Son,* with whom I am well pleased.”

We also see the Trinity in the Transfiguration of the Lord:

While he was still speaking, a cloud came and cast a shadow over them, and they became frightened when they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”

God is the Father almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth. Jesus Christ is his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit.  Jesus is of the same substance, consubstantial, as God. Jesus is our teacher and redeemer.  By his passion, death, and resurrection, he is our salvation, our ticket back into the paradise of Heaven lost by Adam and Eve.  Jesus, along with his mother Mary, reversed the damage done by that first sin of disobedience to God.

The Holy Spirit is the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son and has spoken through the prophets.  It is the Holy Spirit who animates us in the Church today.  We read in 1 Corinthians:

No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. 

Bishop Robert Barron spoke on the Trinity, saying:

This means that God must be, in his own life, an interplay of lover (the Father), beloved (the Son), and shared love (the Holy Spirit)

It’s like an infinite relationship between the divine creator, God, and the divine Son, Jesus, and each pours that love back and forth without reservation, and that is the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity.  Fortunately for us, that love then spills over onto us!  The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are co-equal parts of God.  The Father is God, but is not the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is God, but is not the Son.  The Son is God, but is not the Father. Confused yet?  I certainly am. I guess sometimes we really need to trust the Church’s teachings with faith like a child, and sometimes that can be really difficult.

Especially because a few weeks ago, in the Gospel of John, we heard Jesus say, “My Father is greater than I”.  That can be confusing, but we have to understand context here. Jesus was talking about his human nature in that statement, not His divine nature, which is equal to the Father and the Holy Spirit. There are so many things in Catholic teachings that require faith like a child, as they defy logic.  As an overly logical person, this is difficult for me.  I need to see the Trinity at work.

If we pay attention, we can see the entire Trinity at work in certain points of our lives.  Take confession, for example. God the Father created all, created us, God created the priest we are about to confess to. Jesus the Son is present as the priest, in persona Christi - in the person of Christ - during the sacrament.  There have been times, after the confession and absolution, the priest has given me wisdom vital to my spiritual life, that wisdom is a gift to us from the Holy Spirit.  That’s the Trinity in action in one sacrament.

Mass is another example where we see the Trinity in action.  The prayers often invoke the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, especially during the epicleses when the priest prays for the Holy Spirit to transform the bread and wine into the body and blood of the Son.  We bless ourselves and get blessed often at Mass, and we do so in the simplest of all prayers - “In the name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”. So, invoke the trinity often with that prayer, not just at Mass but as you begin and end each and every day.

St. Ambrose said: “Rise, you who were lying fast asleep … Rise and hurry to the Church: Here is the Father, here is the Son, here is the Holy Spirit.”

Peace Be With You

 

Deacon Kevin Gingras
May 25th, 2025
Sixth Sunday of Easter
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/052525.cfm

Acts 15:1-2, 22-29   Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8

Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23    John 14:23-29

Cardinal Robert Sarah wrote in his book God or Nothing: A Conversation on Faith:

Man is not born to manage his bank account; he is born to find God and to love his neighbor.

When we do find God, we have peace, an inner peace that isn’t affected by the negative things going on around us. This is the peace that Jesus offers his followers in today’s Gospel as he tells them:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.

The world tries so desperately to take away this peace.  This isn’t anything new, as our reading from Acts describes the letter the Apostles sent to Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia:

Since we have heard that some of our number who went out without any mandate from us have upset you with their teachings and disturbed your peace of mind…

The church was young, and they were still trying to decide which things from the Jewish law were necessary.  Some were upsetting the Gentiles by telling them they must be circumcised or they cannot be saved.  They held, what we call today, the Jerusalem Council and wrote a letter to set things straight:

‘It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities, namely, to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meats of strangled animals, and from unlawful marriage. If you keep free of these, you will be doing what is right.

I love how the decision was made by them AND the Holy Spirit.  Sometimes we, too, can get hung up on what we perceive as the rules.  The Pharisees were experts at this.  They had the Prince of Peace right there in front of them, but because of their fixation with the rules and laws, they couldn’t see the Messiah because of the laws they perceived that Jesus was breaking!

Today, we are blessed to have the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, to help us.  The Holy Spirit is intimately connected with peace, and peace is even one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, along with love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  This peace is a gift that overpowers the world around us.  It is a peace found in being in line with, and in tune with, God and trusting His power and grace.  The peace the world offers is fragile and easily stolen away from us. Jesus' peace is a deep presence that stays with us, even in difficulty.

In today’s Gospel Jesus gives us the fast recipe for lasting peace:

Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.

Jesus also tells us how to lose that peace:

Whoever does not love me does not keep my words

We definitely should love Jesus and keep his words!

The Catechism of the Catholic Church also offers help with keeping our peace in paragraph 2304:

Peace cannot be attained on earth without safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication among men, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice of fraternity. Peace is "the tranquillity of order." Peace is the work of justice and the effect of charity.

This week, pray about what causes you to lose your peace.  It could be a tragedy in life, a troubling situation in your family or at work, even something as simple as traffic, lots of rain, and a lack of sunny, warm weather, or losing your favorite fishing lure in a tree.  Whatever it may be, ask the Holy Spirit to pinpoint the destroyer of peace in your life and then ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen you so that even when those struggles do appear, your inner peace, along with your trust in God, stays.

St. Francis de Sales tells us:

Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, not even if your whole world seems upset. If you find that you have wandered away from the shelter of God, lead your heart back to Him quietly and simply. 

We Are All Connected to Each Other

 

Deacon Kevin Gingras

April 13, 2025

Palm Sunday

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041325.cfm

Procession with palms: Luke 19:28-40

Isaiah 50:4-7   Psalm 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24

Philippians 2:6-11    Luke 22:14—23:56

And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’  Mathew 25:40

When praying about today’s Gospel that scripture verse would not get out of my head.  It was clear the Holy Spirit was nudging me.  I didn’t know why at first but after praying over it I realized I live some days like today's Gospel storyline.

I wake up, praise God for the day, and thank Him for keeping me safe through the night.  As I prepare for the day I keep God on my mind, in prayer and thanksgiving.  Jesus is my King for the day, I’m throwing my cloak on the road for Him! Blessed is the King and all that!  Next, I get in my car, I start the rosary and then it all falls apart as I merge onto Route 24 and head to work.  Crucify Him! Crucify Him! I think as that person cuts me off on the road or tailgates me as I drive in the middle lane.

and the Lord turned and looked at Peter; and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times.  He went out and began to weep bitterly.

I get into the office and I do a "sort of" spiritual reset. I recite the Liturgy of the Hours and morning prayer, and then I set my eyes on God again.  I get a new task to work on, it’s from that person that just really annoys me - the cycle starts again!  Now I know why that scripture came to me so quickly:

And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’

I’m not really living up to what Paul writes to the Philippians (2:5):

Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus

Through the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, we are all connected to Jesus, even those who deny Him.  Therefore, if we are all connected to Jesus, then we are all connected to each other.

As we begin Holy Week let us put ourselves aside and truly strive to love everyone we encounter this week on our way towards the Triduum.  

As Saint John the Apostle said: 

No one can love God whom they have not seen if they do not love their brother who they have seen.