4th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Paul says in our 2nd reading: "I should like you to be free of anxieties." That would be pretty nice...but how on earth are we supposed to do that?! Paul's life gives us an answer.
2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
God speaks to us every day. Yet, if we're not careful, we can miss the Lord's voice or mistake it for someone or something else. The Mass is a particular hour each week when God speaks directly to us - do we know what His voice sounds like? Or are our minds sometimes distracted by all the other things going on in our lives? Samuel is being called by God in our first reading...but he mistakes the voice of God for the voice of another person. It's not until the fourth time God calls his name that Samuel finally says, "Speak, Lord, you servant is listening." It might take us a few tries, too, but let's start making Mass a time when we spend our energies not on daydreams, but focusing on what God has to say to us that week: "Speak, Lord, your servant is listening."
Epiphany
Today three wise men/three kings/three magi arrive at the place where Jesus was born after following the sign of a star. The presence of these three non-Jewish kings reveals that God is not only calling the Jewish people but ALL people of the world to believe in and follow His Son Jesus. God's sign was a star; presumably everyone could see it. So why is it only these three wise men who followed that star? Was everyone else just too busy? Were they so caught up in life that they didn't even notice the sign? We encounter three different kinds of people in the Gospel today: those who don't notice the sign, those who notice the sign but don't follow it, and those who notice the sign AND follow it. This week: What are the signs God is placing in your life (what are the stars)? And when you see a sign, do you follow it?