More Colors of Spring

Here are some more "colors of spring."

War and Peace: The President and the Pope

I don't wish to reproduce in any form the long insulting rant against Pope Leo XIV that the President of my country posted on Sunday on social media. This latest petulant stream of verbal abuse was a cause for great sorrow, but unfortunately it was not particularly surprising. It was appalling, but — more than that — it was disoriented and pathetic; among other things, it revealed the pathological and painful insecurity that has driven the afflicted ego of Donald Trump for decades. At present, he probably suffers not only from chronic mental illness but also from increasing cognitive decline. 

Still, it was a shame for him to attack the Pope. I hope he is capable of experiencing shame, as it can be a salutary thing. It can be an opening for Divine Mercy, which is the only hope for any of us. I hope and pray that he finds healing and salvation, just as I hope and pray that I find healing and salvation. In the midst of the ongoing political and social arguments in my own country, and without denying the requirements of justice and accountability for whatever suffering he has caused others throughout his long career, I never want to forget that Donald Trump himself is a human person, created by God and loved by Jesus Christ. Donald Trump is my brother.

Nevertheless, it's clear to me that for a long time my brother Donald has been behaving like a deeply disturbed, egomaniacal, narcissistic man who lashes out at anyone and everyone who disagrees with him, who doesn't admit to his mistakes or apologize for them, and who refuses any public criticism of any of his actions. Unfortunately, as President of the United States, he also continues to be the leader of a regime that wields enormous power. I am convinced (along with many others) that the current U.S. regime continues to abuse this power repeatedly both here in the United States and internationally. Most recently, it chose to initiate what is widely recognized as a reckless and foolish offensive war against Iran in the Middle East, and it continues to hurl dangerous new threats of violence in the face of an alarmingly unstable situation during these two weeks of so-called "cease fire." Longtime allies and large portions of the international community think that the power of the U.S. regime has in recent years brought division, confusion, and hardship into the lives of many people, and may yet participate in unleashing a wider, uncontrollable new global war with forms of destruction we can scarcely imagine.

Pope Leo XIV didn't take offense at Trump's rude outburst against him. On the flight to Algeria to begin his Apostolic visit to several African countries, however, he made an effort to answer the questions of reporters. These were not published as any kind of document, but I have assembled his video-recorded and widely quoted responses below. One of the first questions raised was whether he was afraid of Trump. He made it clear that he does not seek political power, nor will he bend his Papal ministry to the will of those who hold political power. Rather, he is intent on preaching the Gospel, which includes calling out and admonishing those who misuse the Gospel to cover up the assertions of human pride and the aggression of worldly powers. It also includes exhorting and encouraging political and military leaders, diplomats, institutions of civil society, and all concerned persons to take up the difficult work of being "peacemakers." 

Jesus Christ says, "blessed are the peacemakers" (Matthew 5:9), identifying peacemaking as a work of mercy rooted in the Gospel. Christian witness insists on the intrinsic dignity of every human person, and the God-given transcendent vocation of every person that nevertheless is lived out within the flawed and fragile social, cultural, and historical bonds of human communities and, ultimately, nations. Pope Leo recognizes that the widespread destruction and chaos of offensive war are disproportionate to the aim of making adjustments to the complex geopolitical relationships between nations. He insists on the urgency of real dialogue, efforts toward mutual collaboration, and respect for international law not simply as "political values," but because he sees that the whole realm of politics is elevated by the Christian and human vocation to love one another.

Here are Leo's responses:

"I have no fear of the Trump administration, nor speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel. That's what I believe in. I am called to do what the Church is called to do."

The Pope said his words "are certainly not meant as attacks on anyone and the message of the Gospel is very clear, 'Blessed are the peacemakers.'

"I will not shy away from pronouncing the message of the Gospel, of inviting all people to look for ways of building bridges for peace and reconciliation, of looking for ways to avoid war any time that's possible. To put my message on the same plane as what the president has attempted to do here I think is not understanding what the message of the Gospel is and I'm sorry to hear that.

"I do not look at my role as being political ... I don't want to get into a debate with him. I don't think that the message of the Gospel is meant to be abused in the way that some people are doing.

"I will continue to speak out loud against war, looking to promote peace, promoting dialogue, multilateral relationships among the states to look for just solutions to problems. Too many people are suffering in the world today. Too many innocent people are being killed. And I think someone has to stand up and say, 'There's a better way to do this.'"

Have Mercy on Us and on the Whole World

The Octave of Easter and Divine Mercy Sunday.

The Mercy of God is inexhaustible. His mercy is infinitely greater than all my sins - all the mess I've made of the life He has freely given me. I don't know how to "fix" myself. In fact, I can't fix myself by my own power. I need so much the grace and mercy of God.

Through Jesus, God reveals Himself as "Father," and He draws us to a share in His glory by the gift of the Holy Spirit. We all need the mercy of God, which He is always ready to pour out upon us beyond any measure we can conceive. God is our Father. He never stops loving us. He is always drawing us to Himself, sending His Spirit to search the hidden depths within us, to soften our hardened hearts and to “open spaces” in us wherein He mysteriously awakens us to our desire and our need for God, and moves us to begin to hope for “salvation” from the impenetrable darkness of our sins, our guilt, and all the anxiousness and helplessness that we cannot escape. God’s grace reminds us that we are made for Him, that we long for Him, that we can search for Him and cry out to Him even in the greatest darkness.

God loves us always, even if we don’t realize it. He sent His Only-Begotten Son into the world to save each one of us. He whispers the promise of salvation within us, and if we ask for His healing and transforming power, and surrender ourselves to His loving mercy, He will change us. He will free us from sin, renew our lives, and raise us up to become “adopted” sons and daughters in His Son Jesus. The Holy Spirit will work within us and empower us to cooperate with Him in freedom, as full human persons who are integrally redeemed and liberated so that we can receive God's love and love Him in return.

We are all sinners and we have contributed to the sinful evasions, distraction, and blindness that have become the patterns-of-sin that have infected the forms of our societies. We have all contributed to the pervasive violence of our societies. Now, as the prospect of a devastating war continues to loom over us, we beg for mercy for ourselves and for the whole world.

Nothing is greater than Divine Mercy, and the Spirit contually prompts us and lifts us up, strengthening us and giving us hope. We begin to see the world through the eyes of Jesus.

Here is our joy, strength, and peace. Even as everything is in disarray all around us, Jesus remains with us. He loves us. He loves every human person. He will enable us to love one another.

Lord, in your mercy, never let us "give in" to cynicism or discouragement. Let us rather place all our trust in you, and go out and bring the good news of your inexhaustible mercy to the whole world.

Pope Leo’s Worldwide “Prayer Vigil for Peace”

On Saturday, April 11, 2026, Pope Leo and the people of Rome assembled at Saint Peter’s Basilica to pray the Rosary for peace. Vatican media live-streamed the event around the world, inviting people everywhere to join in this most urgent plea to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace.

It was a beautiful event that will bear fruit in its own time, under the Lord’s merciful Providence.

The Pope continued to be very concrete in his prophetic witness regarding the dangerous conflict that continues in the Middle East, and the even more perilous “love of war” that has entered the hearts of too many people in our world today. He denounced “the idolatry of self and money” that turns people and nations away from the service of life and toward destruction and death. It is sinful to seek power and profit in ways that violate the dignity of human persons created in the image of God. 

But the entire event proclaimed the fact that God loves us and wants to save us, that Jesus gave Himself to free us from sin and to draw us together into the eternal life of God — which also entails drawing us together here and now (amidst all obstacles and difficulties) to dialogue with one another and try to understand one another, to begin — with great patience and trust in the mercy of Jesus — to build a “civilization of love” and peace.

Celebrating Easter With Christina Grimmie

This Friday of Easter Week moves me to recall the late Christina Grimmie. In two months we will mark the 10th anniversary of her tragic passing from this life. I wonder if all my portraits of her look the same, but I don’t mind working on them. Christina loved Easter, and proclaimed the resurrection of Jesus each year on her social media accounts.

She lived her love for Him every day of her brief bright beautiful life.

The Risen Jesus and the World’s Problems

The turbulence in world events this Easter Week is not without historical precedent. The violence and covetousness of persons, communities, and nations usually seem unaffected by the liturgical year. Moreover, most of us Christians have probably noticed that our own flaws, problems, difficulties, and fears have not miraculously disappeared. The Resurrection of Jesus inaugurates the beginning of God’s Kingdom, which includes the mysterious presence of His Lordship over the history of this world. Still, the human journey through this world continues for us who live in it: we are still called follow the Lord, to do His will, and to “carry our crosses” by persevering in our vocations. Indeed, the Kingdom of God has begun within us and among us when we adhere to Jesus in faith, hope, and charity. Our liturgical and sacramental participation in the Paschal Mystery during Holy Week and Easter enriches our lives with superabundant graces (more profoundly than we know). Nevertheless, we usually don’t feel like we have changed very much: we still often forget God, commit sins, and struggle with sorrows and sufferings that can seem very distant from the redemption we celebrate in these days. 

We must not lose heart. The Paschal event of Christ’s definitive victory over death does not “undo” His crucifixion; He rises with His wounds (hands, feet, side) in His glorified body, wounds transfigured by Divine Mercy, to be forever signs of His forgiveness. 

His glorified wounds are a constant and particular invitation to us. We all have wounds and we all hurt one another. The consequences of the violence we carry out against one another are real, and the disfigurement, the pain, the bitterness, and the anger may last long after the wounds become scars. But we who have been wounded must not allow ourselves to be reduced and defined by these afflictions so that they diminish our trust in the Risen Jesus and our willingness to turn to Him every day for mercy, forgiveness, and renewed hope. The ultimate truth about our lives consists in our relationship to our destiny: eternal communion with the Triune God and with one another in the Love that never ends. The resurrection of Jesus and His presence among us in the Spirit and through the Church means that the fulfillment of our true selves has already begun and is already shaping us in this present moment.

The Risen Jesus shows us His wounds, and reveals to us that our own wounds have meaning. The Kingdom of God manifests itself, and the world begins to be transformed into the New Creation, when — in letting ourselves be forgiven, healed, loved, and changed by Jesus crucified and risen — we forgive those who have injured us, we love our enemies, we pray for our persecutors. When we love our enemies, we bear witness to our encounter with the Risen Lord and our belonging to Him in a gratuitous and wondrous embrace that He extends to everyone. The good news of the Gospel is the victory of God’s love and mercy over sin and all its pains, divisiveness, and corruption — the victory over sin and death. 

Mercy doesn’t ignore justice, trying to pretend the wounds of sin and violence (our own and others) are not there. But when we come to know Christ’s saving love for us, we are freed from the illusions of our own inclination to seek revenge. Instead, the Holy Spirit stirs up in our hearts a desire to be instruments of mercy to everyone. As we grow in this renewal of our lives — listening to and following the grace of His Spirit — Jesus transforms our own awareness and compassion so that we ourselves become merciful. We begin to seek the conversion of our enemies — not only that in their sorrow they might try to repair what they can of the damage they have done to us — but fundamentally that our enemies might become our friends, together with us in the Body of the Risen Lord, united in His forgiveness that brings new life — eternal life.

It is important to ask the Lord continually for the grace to be merciful as He is merciful. Only in this way can we truly become “peacemakers” in our troubled world.

The Colors of Spring

Here are some photograph-based digital artworks expressing the colors and freshness of the spring 2026 season in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley. The fair weather and longer evenings have me out and about once again.

"A Whole Civilization Will Die"? This is Madness!

Easter Tuesday.

"Today as we all know there was this threat against all the people of Iran. This is truly unacceptable" (Pope Leo XIV).

At this moment, we are one hour and forty minutes from initiating Total War against Iran, because of this sad, deranged man who has for too long abused the office of the President of the United States.

Jesus Risen from the dead, have mercy on us! Our Lady Queen of Peace, spread your maternal mantle over the people of Iran.🙏

Pray to God, and — as Pope Leo has recommended — flood Congress and the Senate with messages of protest.

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UPDATE: At ten minutes before 7:00 PM, the President of the United States announced a “two week cease fire” based on negotiations mediated by Pakistan in which Iran proposed some kind of “basis” for further negotiations. He insisted that Iran, of course, would have to open the Strait of Hormuz “immediately and completely.” An official claiming to represent Iran’s “foreign ministry” confirmed this report, although his language about Hormuz was more complicated and hedged.

Iran’s regime is deeply embedded in various layers of the nation’s political and military structure, with provisions to — if necessary — decentralize the authoritarian system if the central leadership is wiped out. It is a system designed to survive and continue to fight for its survival. The destruction has been vast over the course of these weeks, in Iran and in the Gulf States that have borne the brunt (thus far) of its retaliation.

How can we even know what’s going on?

Does anyone know what Israel thinks of all this? Are they part of this “cease fire” too? Southern Lebanon has over a million refugees, as Israel continues to press forward into their territory.

The most vulnerable people, as usual, will suffer the most from this chaos. Jesus is united with them in their suffering, even if they do not know His name.

And the truth of our Easter feast remains forever: Jesus Christ is Risen from death. He is the only Lord. The rulers of this world will not prevail against Him. 

If we speak out against evil, it must never be out of a spirit of vengeance or hatred. It must only be for love — that the leaders and the peoples of our times might turn away from evil and surrender themselves to His victorious love, so that He might heal them, free them from the idols that have made them slaves of their own power, and turn them toward Himself, His goodness, justice, patience, and mercy. We beg for this healing for them and for ourselves.

Our task in this world is not to destroy civilizations. It is not to crush our adversaries. It is not to win at any price. Our task is to love God our Father through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit, and to love one another as brothers and sisters.

Happy Easter 2026!

Christ is Risen, Alleluia! He is Truly Risen, Alleluia, Alleluia! Happy Easter 2026.

The Great Mystery of Holy Saturday

Holy Saturday has been the subject of profound theological speculation since the last century, as Christians pondered the terrible anguish of the human being living and dying in the darkness of a “world” that was socially constructed in such a way as to exclude God. In the twentieth century, history confronted us with the awful and inescapable question: if the Creator is made to disappear, what hope could there possibly be for the creature (especially the created person)? Nevertheless, there were some Christians who began to realize that God would not so easily let Himself be set aside. They began to ponder the Paschal Mystery of the redeeming event of Christ’s death and resurrection in distinctive ways. Holy Saturday, with its mysterious silence, began to take on a new focus as God “seemed to be silent” in the face of all the individual and corporate violence perpetrated within existentially-totalitarian-secularist societies with their ideologies, wars, concentration camps, gulags, genocides, and countless other forms of agonizing oppression. 

Nietzsche had said, “God is dead,” and many people feared (or hoped) that this was really true. The Christian tradition, however, knew more of the mystery of God’s love for the world and the depths of the salvific suffering of the Father’s Only-Begotten Son. How might this relate to Holy Saturday? Can it be said that the Divine Person of God the Son — who really died on Good Friday in His human nature and endured the silence of “being-dead” on Holy Saturday — made Himself “present” in solidarity to the ultimate depths of human anguish? 

Such speculations are not meant to replace the traditional Holy Saturday theme of Christ going down to the realm of death to rescue the righteous people of Israel and all others who had lived and died in fidelity to whatever light of truth had been given to them. Their souls were all awaiting Christ’s redeeming “descent” wherein He would lead them into the Father’s glory, “opening the gates of heaven” that had been shut by original sin. Rather, these more recent theological speculations sought to encompass this traditionally explicit Holy Saturday theme within the consideration of a more fundamental mystery of how Jesus enters into death itself — how He really, “ontologically (so to speak),” takes our sins and our death upon Himself, repairs the irreparable through His saving love, and opens the way to salvation beyond all human possibilities.

Here there is much that remains veiled in mystery, and prone to misunderstanding or over-mystified expressions. But there appears to be something herein that responds to the unspeakable anguish of human persons in the face of evil and death — the anguish that became especially a stumbling block to belief in God for many people who felt trapped by the limits of a world without transcendence and constructed by human power alone.

As it so happens, one of these theologians articulated his reflections on this theme in a very moving way during a “meditation” he presented while visiting the Holy Shroud of Turin on May 2, 2010. These reflections are of particular interest because the theologian in question was not there in a merely private capacity; he was the Pope making a Pastoral Visit to the Archdiocese of Turin. Pope Benedict XVI was anything but the unimaginative, rigid, reactionary that so many journalists made him out to be. He was a great and profound theologian, and his teachings as Pope continue to guide some of the most important “new pathways” that authentic Catholic theology is called to investigate and ponder today and in the future.

Here is what Pope Benedict XVI said about the mystery of Holy Saturday on May 2, 2010, after he referred to the Shroud as the “Icon of Holy Saturday.” Check the Vatican Website for the full text of this beautiful and powerful reflection. It gives courage to our faith to know that we are so unfathomably loved by God:

“Holy Saturday is a ‘no man's land’ between the death and the Resurrection, but this ‘no man's land’ was entered by One, the Only One, who passed through it with the signs of his Passion for man's sake: Passio Christi. Passio hominis…

“In this ‘time-beyond-time’, Jesus Christ ‘descended to the dead.’ [From the Apostles’ Creed: “He descended into hell.”]

“What do these words mean? They mean that God, having made himself man, reached the point of entering man's most extreme and absolute solitude, where not a ray of love enters, where total abandonment reigns without any word of comfort: ‘hell.’

“Jesus Christ, by remaining in death, passed beyond the door of this ultimate solitude to lead us too to cross it with him.

“We have all, at some point, felt the frightening sensation of abandonment, and that is what we fear most about death, just as when we were children we were afraid to be alone in the dark and could only be reassured by the presence of a person who loved us. Well, this is exactly what happened on Holy Saturday: the voice of God resounded in the realm of death.

“The unimaginable occurred: namely, Love penetrated ‘hell.’ 

“Even in the extreme darkness of the most absolute human loneliness we may hear a voice that calls us and find a hand that takes ours and leads us out.

“Human beings live because they are loved and can love; and if love even penetrated the realm of death, then life also even reached there.

“In the hour of supreme solitude we shall never be alone.”

Love Does Not End With Death (Good Friday 2026)

My Dad passed away seven years ago today. Here is a picture of that "original Virginia Janaros" family from about 40 years ago, when we were all young: my parents (both passed on from this world) and my brother who has been like an anchor in my life for 63 years. 

Life is a great mystery. Every human person is precious, and we discover that especially through the persons that are given to us to love. I am learning in an ever more concrete way that love does not end with death. But if it weren't for Jesus Christ and his victory over death that we remember and celebrate in these days, I would be a lost man. The passage of time would be unbearable.

Instead, I have hope. I know that life is destined to be fulfilled in eternity, that our loves and labors and sorrows in this world — entrusted to Jesus — are seeds that will bear fruit in the Resurrection. Thus we journey through time with the firm hope that we will dwell forever together with the Triune God who is Love, in whose embrace we find unending joy — and where nothing is "lost," where we will see one another's faces healed and made whole, with every tear wiped away.

Holy Thursday 2026: “God Gives Himself to Us”

Holy Thursday.

Jesus washes the feet of the apostles. Detail from Ethiopian icon.

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“The gift and example overall, which we find in the passage on the washing of the feet, is a characteristic of the nature of Christianity in general. Christianity is not a type of moralism, simply a system of ethics. It does not originate in our action, our moral capacity. Christianity is first and foremost a gift: God gives himself to us - he does not give something, but himself. And this does not only happen at the beginning, at the moment of our conversion. He constantly remains the One who gives. He continually offers us his gifts. He always precedes us. This is why the central act of Christian being is the Eucharist: gratitude for having been gratified, joy for the new life that he gives us” (Pope Benedict XVI, Holy Thursday, 2008).

Betrayal Wears Many Disguises

“Betrayal” isn’t as difficult as it seems. It disguises itself as a kiss. It is capable of many disguises.

And so we come to Judas.

Are we really so much different from him?

Who hasn’t betrayed the Lord in some way or other, to some extent?

We betray Him too. Even if just by some lukewarm, half-baked schemes we connive in when God’s ways are incomprehensible to us, or embarrass us, or disappoint us in our narrowness...

But the decision we then face is whether we’re going to give up on God, or go back to Him.

Never, never, never give up!

Peace Comes With Work to Do

Peace

When will you ever, Peace, wild wooddove, shy wings shut, 

Your round me roaming end, and under be my boughs? 

When, when, Peace, will you, Peace? I'll not play hypocrite 

To own my heart: I yield you do come sometimes; but 

That piecemeal peace is poor peace. What pure peace allows 

Alarms of wars, the daunting wars, the death of it?

O surely, reaving Peace, my Lord should leave in lieu 

Some good! And so he does leave Patience exquisite, 

That plumes to Peace thereafter. And when Peace here does house 

He comes with work to do, he does not come to coo, 

       He comes to brood and sit.

~Gerard Manley Hopkins 

"God is Love! Have Mercy! Lay Down Your Weapons!"

Why should I write anything on this Psalm Sunday 2026, when such eloquent, passionate, insistent pleas were made today on behalf of our humble Savior by His own Vicar on this Earth, the Successor of Saint Peter, Bishop of Rome, Servant of the Servants of God?

Pope Leo devoted nearly the whole of his Psalm Sunday homily today to Jesus as "King of Peace" who cries out to humanity to withdraw from the further escalation of war. Among the many wars being fought throughout the world, Leo no doubt has in his mind and heart the new war in the Middle East that has already spun out of control and brought lasting damage and misery, and that now threatens to afflict immense suffering upon the whole world.

Let us be clear: the Pope is not "preaching politics." He is continuing and further emphasizing his prophetic warning that "darkness is about to engulf the earth." His aim is to proclaim the gospel that the Paschal Mystery of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is our salvation and our hope. Jesus wins the decisive victory over all the violence that is brought to bear against Him, by answering it with the wonderful and incomprehensible love of His Most Compassionate Heart.

This is the all-encompassing victory of forgiving love that pertains to each one of us, that is given to free us from our own sins - from the "small wars" that rage in our hearts and strike out against Him and against our brothers and sisters. Christ alone saves us from our sins.

At the same time, the Pope is also applying this gospel truth to read the signs of the times. His intention is not to add one more opinion to the convoluted discourse about geopolitical strategy or the arrangement of hegemonic power in diverse regions — the human machinations to achieve "security" through the use of violence. Rather, he sees the particular hubris of powerful nations in this moment of time and denounces it as SIN. Continuing to risk the incredible dangers of a reckless offensive war is sinful. Leo calls us to repentance, so that we might open our hearts to the mercy of Christ who never ceases to love us. 

The chaos of war attacks and afflicts human persons whom Christ has united with Himself, and sets forces in motion that may reek havoc on millions (or billions) of people all over the world. Pope Leo is insisting that we stop waging war against one another, and instead turn to Christ and beg Him to draw us closer to Himself and one another, to pour out into our hearts the Holy Spirit who makes us peacemakers.

From today's homily by Pope Leo XIV for Psalm Sunday (excerpts from Vatican website):

"We turn our gaze to Jesus, who reveals himself as King of Peace, even as war looms around him. He remains steadfast in meekness, while others are stirring up violence. He offers himself to embrace humanity, even as others raise swords and clubs. He is the light of the world, though darkness is about to engulf the earth. He came to bring life, even as plans unfold to condemn him to death.

"King of Peace. Jesus’ desire is to bring the world into the Father’s arms, tearing down every barrier that separates us from God and from our neighbor, for 'He is our peace' (Eph 2:14).

"King of Peace. Jesus enters into Jerusalem not upon a horse, but upon a donkey, fulfilling the ancient prophecy that calls for rejoicing at the arrival of the Messiah: 'Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war-horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations' (Zech 9:9–10).

"King of Peace. When one of his disciples drew his sword to defend him and struck the high priest’s servant, Jesus immediately stopped him, saying: 'Put your sword back into its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword' (Mt 26:52).

"King of Peace. While he was burdened with our sufferings and pierced for our sins, Jesus 'did not open his mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent' (Is 53:7). He did not arm himself, or defend himself, or fight any war. He revealed the gentle face of God, who always rejects violence. Rather than saving himself, he allowed himself to be nailed to the cross, embracing every cross borne in every time and place throughout human history.

"Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: 'Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood' (Is 1:15).

"As we set our gaze upon him who was crucified for us, we can see a crucified humanity. In his wounds, we see the hurts of so many women and men today. In his last cry to the Father, we hear the weeping of those who are crushed, who have no hope, who are sick and who are alone. Above all, we hear the painful groans of all those who are oppressed by violence and are victims of war.

"Christ, King of Peace, cries out again from his cross: God is love! Have mercy! Lay down your weapons! Remember that you are brothers and sisters!"

Pope Leo: War and the Idolatry of Power and Money

Pope Leo XIV once again reminds us of the truth about war and peace during his Apostolic visit to Monaco. As we prepare for Holy Week, many people already endure the “passion” of war — the innocent victims, the children, the elderly, the ordinary people who are terrorized by bombs, cut off from basic necessities, driven from their homes and becoming refugees, or killed or wounded capriciously.

Meanwhile, the whole world teeters on a precipice — the imminent possibility of a further escalation that could unleash destruction on a scale we cannot imagine. Lord Jesus, move the hearts of those who hold power to step back from the edge of catastrophe! You who are the God who came among us “unarmed and disarming,” protect us, save us, change our hearts!

“Remembering” God’s Love Through Prayer

Here are some brief antiphons from the liturgy during the fifth week of Lent that have brought me consolation and strength of heart during an abundance of difficulties old and new. Prayer is a gift that reminds us that Jesus carries us in His Heart in all our trials and all our joys. All of life is immersed in His love.

Mary's "Yes" Helps Give God's Mercy a Human Face

Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.

May it be done to me according to your word" (Luke 1:38).

For the Solemnity of the Annunciation, I would like to cite some words from Pope Leo XIV's homily for the Marian feast on January 1. On both these days "we celebrate the mystery of Mary’s divine motherhood. By her 'yes,' she helped give a human face to the source of all mercy and benevolence: the face of Jesus...

"One of the fundamental features of God’s face [is] the complete gratuity of his love... God presents himself to us 'unarmed and disarming,' as naked and defenseless as a newborn in a cradle. He does this to teach us that the world is not saved by sharpening swords, nor by judging, oppressing or eliminating our brothers and sisters. Rather, it is saved by tirelessly striving to understand, forgive, liberate and welcome everyone, without calculation and without fear.

"This is the face of God that Mary allowed to take shape and grow within her womb, completely transforming her life. It is the face she proclaimed through the joyful yet delicate light of her eyes while bearing him in her womb; the face whose beauty she contemplated daily in her home as Jesus grew as a child, boy and young man; and the face she followed with the heart of a humble disciple, as he walked the paths of his mission, all the way to the cross and the resurrection. To do so, she too laid aside every defense, renouncing expectations, claims and comforts – as mothers so often do – consecrating her life without reserve to the Son she had received by grace, so that she might, in turn, give him back to the world.

"In Mary’s divine motherhood, then, we see the meeting of two immense, 'unarmed' realities: that of God, who renounces every privilege of his divinity to be born in the flesh (cf. Philippians 2:6-11), and that of a human person who, trustingly and fully, embraces God’s will. In a perfect act of love, she offers him the greatest power she possesses: her freedom."

#Annunciation

The Love and Mercy of Saint Oscar Romero

Today we commemorate the martyrdom of Saint Oscar Romero.

Saint Oscar Romero "of the Americas" is an example for our time of singular dedication to Christ in the concrete circumstances in which he was called. As Archbishop of the capital city of a nation mired in political and social injustice, dehumanization, and violence, Romero's love for Jesus Christ and the dignity of whole reality of EVERY human person in Christ the Redeemer drove him to stand up for the poor and denounce the repression perpetrated by the corrupt government, the military, and the "death squads."

Romero did not advocate fighting violence with violence. His only "weapons" were the love and mercy by which he preached Christ, taught the truth, admonished sinners (no matter how rich, powerful, or dangerous they were), and pleaded for their conversion. He lived the radical vocation of a bishop, and for this he shed his blood while saying Mass on March 24, 1980. 

To his intercession let us entrust all those who suffer oppression and dehumanizing violence (which is always "anti-christian" because it is inflicted on human persons for whom Christ died, whom He made His brothers and sisters). Let us ask Saint Oscar Romero to intercede especially for all the peoples of "America" — North, Central, and South.

"Out of the Depths"

Fifth Sunday of Lent.

Moving Forward Toward Changes and Pain

The journey of this life brings changes, and losses, and pain. And I am a man of so little faith.

Often, I am tempted to try to “live inside” the order and understanding that my powerful mind can construct. My mind adheres to the truth and the Person of Christ, but this doesn’t mean that I can reduce the mysteries of faith to a mere ideology that “explains away” the flesh-and-blood challenges of real life, or insulates me from their call (Christ’s call) for my response, my love, and my endurance. I can fall for this temptation (in some measure, as I live day to day) without even being aware of it. But there are times when we realize how little we have allowed our faith in Jesus to penetrate our bones.

As an educated person, a thinker, and a teacher, I do have a few little pieces of “human wisdom” (awkward and fallible), which are also drawn beyond themselves by the small faith I (sometimes desperately) hold onto, and the conviction — often obscured but not entirely extinguished — that God loves us, and that Jesus lives and endures everything with us and in us.

Faith in Jesus is a grace from God. But the world with its darkness and violence, my incoherence and distraction, and the sickness of my mind and body fight against my remembering Jesus and trusting in Him. And now, something is coming that terrifies me!

Underneath my intelligence and my feeble will is a storm of emotional trauma, confusion, and anguish that I don't understand and can't get a grip on. It's like the water Peter is drowning in, when he cries out, "Jesus, save me!" It all comes down to His grabbing a hold on me.

Jesus, save me...

And now, I cry out in new ways. Not for myself alone do I cry out. “Jesus, save us!”

We all must find this cry, as we move forward into change and pain and the loss of many illusions. Pray to the Lord!

And look for Jesus in the faces of one another. Never forget that we are all brothers and sisters. Don't be alone!

Saint Joseph, the Faithful Protector

Daily Novena Prayer to Saint Joseph 

Saint Joseph, you are the faithful protector and intercessor of all who love and venerate you.

You know that I have confidence in you and that, after Jesus and Mary, I come to you as an example for holiness, for you are especially close with God. Therefore, I humbly commend myself, with all who are dear to me and all that belong to me, to your intercession.

I beg of you, by your love for Jesus and Mary, not to abandon me during life and to assist me at the hour of my death. Glorious Saint Joseph, spouse of the Immaculate Virgin, pray for me to have a pure, humble, charitable mind, and perfect resignation to the divine Will. Be my guide, my father, and my model through life that I may die as you did in the arms of Jesus and Mary.

Loving Saint Joseph, faithful follower of Jesus Christ, I raise my heart to you to implore your powerful intercession in obtaining from the Divine Heart of Jesus all the graces necessary for my spiritual and temporal welfare, particularly the grace of a happy death, and the special grace I now implore:

(Mention your request) 

Guardian of the Word Incarnate, I feel confident that your prayers on my behalf will be graciously heard before the throne of God. Saint Joseph Most Just, Pray for us! Amen. 

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.

Amen.

Finally Forsythia!

Look! Flowers! They’ve come at last. The Forsythia bushes are in bloom!

Jesus Heals the “Man-Born-Blind,” and Gives Him Faith

What a tremendous Scripture reading we are given for the Fourth Sunday of Lent! Chapter 9 of the Gospel of John recounts the miraculous healing of “the man born blind.” This is a magnificent text, rich in meaning on so many levels: the mystery of Christ, the grace of salvation, the liberation of fallen humanity from the blindness of sin, the role of human freedom. John 9 is almost inexhaustible as a text for lectio divina and offers many perspectives for theological and exegetical work.

Here we will focus on only one aspect of this narrative, insofar as it is the story of the conversion of a human person — the “man-born-blind”— to a way of “seeing” that is not only physical, but that above all empowers him to adhere to Jesus in faith and love. The disability of blindness was regarded as a particularly grave and mysterious affliction in most ancient cultures, including first century Israel. The loss or diminishment of one’s sight (even in old age) was a special cause for sorrow and a sense of impoverishment, distancing people from a full engagement with the world that was ordinarily so accessible to the whole realm of their senses, and often placing them in a condition of dependence on others for the basic needs of life. 

But the man we meet in the story of John 9 was afflicted with a form of blindness beyond anything caused by common human ailments, accidents, or violence: he was “blind from birth.” He was regarded as a “defective” human being in a way that often failed to distinguish his physical handicap from his essential dignity as a human person created and loved by God. He had no experience of sight and was physically incapable of seeing. We don’t know the nature of his condition in terms of modern medicine, but it may have involved a congenital disfigurement — some Church fathers claim that he had no eyes at all, but in any case his blindness seemed immediately apparent to others. The disciples were so struck by his appearance that they assumed it to be some punishment for sin (John 9:2), and after his cure his neighbors didn’t even recognize him as the same person (9:8-9). 

Clearly, the process Jesus used to “open his eyes” was no ordinary medical treatment. Through his making mud paste from the dust and his saliva, putting it upon the places where the man should have had functioning eyes, and having the man wash in the pool of Siloam (9:6-7), Jesus effected a mysterious physical transformation that enabled him to see. Up to that moment, the experience of this man was nothing except the hindrance of being blind in a visual world full of people who took seeing for granted and structured their environment in a visual way. Nevertheless (as becomes evident in the discourse that follows) he was not lacking in intelligence and had a basic knowledge of the religion of Israel. Still, the strange innate deformity of his physical blindness had compelled him to be a beggar, to live on the margins of the community. At no point in this story do we even hear his name.

Perhaps he regarded himself as “the blind beggar” and nothing more. He asked nothing of Jesus, and probably didn’t even notice him, but Jesus — the “light of the world” (9:5) — chose this man in the compassion of his heart and re-formed the man’s body so that he could see for the first time. Jesus did this for him personally, but also as a sign of the love he wants to give to all of us, to make of our poor humanity a new creation. He heals the man “so that the works of God might be made visible through him” (9:3). God is present, acting, offering salvation through Jesus. The physical miracle is undeniable, but it is also an invitation to faith in Jesus. 

When his sight was given him, the man-born-blind knew his benefactor only as “the man called Jesus” (9:11), but he soon found himself the object of disputation. The religious authorities found fault with Jesus for doing an active work that “broke the Sabbath” (9:16). But the formerly blind man had already begun to see with more than his renewed bodily eyes. He knew he had been touched by the power of God. To the doubting Pharisees he declared that Jesus was “a prophet” (9:17). 

Yet the controversy only deepened. His own parents were afraid to support his testimony to Jesus (9:18-23) and the religious authorities had clearly set themselves in opposition to Jesus, insisting that Jesus was a sinner. The blind man had lived his whole life on the margins, far from theological erudition and disputations. He was a poor man, a simple man. But he couldn’t deny the facts, which were overwhelming to him and which should have been clear to anyone else who knew him: “If he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see” (9:25). The powerful men of Judaea insisted that Jesus could not be trusted. His actions didn’t meet their criteria of someone who was from God. They closed their hearts to Jesus and insisted to the formerly blind man that it was dangerous to follow Jesus, that they didn’t know the source of his power, or where Jesus had come from. 

But the once-blind and now-seeing beggar was further enlightened in front of the ironic opposition of the religious experts, and he found the courage to call them out: “This is what is so amazing, that you do not know where he is from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if one is devout and does his will, he listens to him. It is unheard of that anyone ever opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he would not be able to do anything” (9:30-33).

This humble statement was not only entirely reasonable; it also expressed the basic terms of the Mosaic Covenant that the religious leaders claimed the authority to interpret. Their only refuge at this point was violence: they throw him out of the meeting place. The formerly-blind man found himself once again “marginalized” by human society, but his heart was open and he was one step away from faith. Jesus came to him, and the man looked at Jesus with his newfound eyes. Jesus said, “‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ He answered and said, ‘Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?’ Jesus said to him, ‘You have seen him and the one speaking with you is he.’ He said, ‘I do believe, Lord,’ and he worshiped him” (9:35-38). In this final encounter with Jesus, the man-born-blind was given the eyes of faith and the full adherence of conversion.