Beads of Joy Blog II (2025)

Truth Nobody Wants to Hear A Reflection on Luke 21:12-19 You think you're ready to follow Jesus until you read Luke 21:12-19. Then you realize what you signed up for. Betrayal. Persecution. Family turning against you. Friends walking away. Jesus lays it out plain: "They will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name." And here's the thing, he's not warning us so we can avoid it. He's warning us so we won't be shocked when it happens. Most of us want a faith that makes life easier, that gives us peace and prosperity and good vibes. But Jesus offers something different: a faith that makes us dangerous to the world's priorities. A faith that will cost us. And if we're honest, most days we're not sure we want to pay that price. That's the humility we need to start with, admitting that when push comes to shove, we'd often rather be comfortable than faithful. The hardest...

When Everything Falls Apart A Reflection on Luke 21:5-11 You know that feeling when something you thought was permanent just... isn't? Maybe it's a relationship that felt rock-solid until it wasn't. Maybe it's a job you thought you'd have forever. Maybe it's looking at your childhood home before it gets sold or watching a loved one's health decline. That sinking feeling, that's where Jesus meets his disciples in Luke 21. They're staring at the Temple, this massive, gleaming structure that had taken decades to build, admiring its beauty and permanence. And Jesus just drops it on them: "All this you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another." Imagine their faces. This wasn't just a building; it was the place where heaven touched earth, where God lived among them. If this could fall, what couldn't? Here's the thing that makes this passage so unsettling: Jesus isn't trying to scare them for fun. He...

Secret Generosity: Not Public Applause A Reflection on Luke 21:1-4 Have you ever noticed how some people love to make a big show when they help others? Just like posting videos of their generosity, why?? They want everyone to see how generous they are, maybe even get their name on a plaque, or on a building or a special shout-out. Some people just need that pat on the back with some public praise. But Jesus shows us something completely different in the story of the widow's offering. While rich people were dropping their heavy coins into the metal collection boxes, making loud clanging sounds that got everyone's attention, a poor widow quietly dropped in two tiny copper coins worth almost nothing. Yet Jesus said she gave more than everyone else. How could that be? Because God doesn't look at the dollar amount on our check or count the zeros in our bank account. He looks at our hearts and sees what our giving actually costs us. The rich people in the temple that day gave...

Jesus Christ King of the Universe A Reflection on Luke 23:35-43 Today, on this last Sunday of the liturgical year, the Church places before us the most profound truth of our faith: Jesus Christ is King of the Universe. But look where we find Him, crowned, upon the cross at Calvary. The people stand watching, the rulers sneer at Him: "He saved others, let him save himself if he is the chosen one, the Christ of God." The soldiers mock Him, offering vinegar, saying, "If you are King of the Jews, save yourself." Even the criminal crucified beside Him joins in the blasphemy. Yet Our Blessed Lord remains. He doesn't defend Himself. He doesn't strike them down. He simply loves, even unto death. This is the kingship of Christ, not domination, but total self-gift. When we meditate on the Fifth Sorrowful Mystery, the Crucifixion, we contemplate not merely an execution, but the enthronement of the King of Heaven. His crown is thorns, His throne is the wood of the cro...

Children of The Resurrection A Reflection on Luke 20:27-40 The Sadducees walk up to Jesus thinking they're so clever. They've got this whole scenario worked out, seven brothers, one woman, whose wife is she in the resurrection? They're smirking because they don't even believe in resurrection. It's a trap question, a mockery. But watch what Jesus does. He doesn't get defensive. He doesn't dodge. He goes straight to the heart of their problem: "You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God." That one sentence should make all of us pause. How often do we box God in? How often do we think heaven works like earth, only shinier? Jesus is telling them, and us, that God's power is so far beyond our categories that we can't even ask the right questions yet. The resurrection isn't about who's married to whom. It's about becoming something we've never been before: deathless, imperishable, fully alive as ch...

The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary A Reflection on The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary There's something about a three-year-old child climbing fifteen temple steps that stops you in your tracks. According to tradition, that's exactly what Mary did, her tiny feet carrying her up each stone toward a life she couldn't possibly understand yet, but somehow already embraced. The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary isn't just a sweet story about a devoted child. It's the first radical "yes" in a life that would be defined by yes after yes after yes, each one more costly than the last. When her parents brought her to the Temple, they were offering their daughter to God, and Mary, barely more than a baby herself, was already learning what it meant to belong entirely to Him. Think about that. Before the Annunciation, before Bethlehem, before the sword would pierce her heart at Calvary, she was already walking toward God with open hands. This m...

Jesus Wept Over Jerusalem A Reflection on Luke 19:41-44 There's a moment in the Gospel that pierces straight through to the heart of everything, a moment so tender and terrible that we almost want to look away. Jesus is approaching Jerusalem, riding on a donkey while crowds celebrate around him. The air is electric with expectation, filled with shouts of praise and the rustle of palm branches. But then Luke shows us something the crowds cannot see: Jesus weeping. Not a single tear sliding down his cheek, but deep, wrenching sobs that shake his whole body. He looks at the holy city spread before him, the Temple gleaming white and gold in the sun, the ancient walls, the thousands of pilgrims gathered for Passover, and his heart breaks. "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace, but now it is hidden from your eyes." The Prince of Peace himself stands at the gates, and the city cannot recognize him. God's own visitation is happening, and t...

What Are You Actually Doing  With What You've Been Given? A Reflection on Luke 19:11-28 Jesus tells this story right before entering Jerusalem, and I wonder if He knew how deeply it would cut. A nobleman gives his servants these minas, these gifts, and then leaves. Some of them take what they're given and do something beautiful with it. They invest, they risk, they let it grow. One servant buries his in the ground, and when the master returns, that's the one who loses everything. We read this and think it's about money, about financial stewardship, but that's not what makes it so personal. Those minas represent everything God has poured into your life, not just what's in your wallet. Maybe He's given you this incredible capacity to listen, really listen, when someone's falling apart. Maybe it's patience with people others have given up on. Maybe it's that extra room in your house, or your ability to make someone smile when they're barely ho...

When Jesus Looks Up A Reflection on Luke 19:1-10 Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector in Jericho, which meant he was both wealthy and despised. Tax collectors collaborated with Rome and were known for extorting their own people. When Jesus came through town, Zacchaeus climbed a sycamore tree just to catch a glimpse of Him, imagine how desperate that must have felt, a powerful man reduced to scrambling up a tree like a child. The crowd surrounding Jesus knew exactly who Zacchaeus was. They would have expected Jesus to pass right by. Instead, Jesus stopped, looked up, and said something that must have shocked everyone: "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." Not a suggestion. Not conditional. Jesus invited Himself into the home of the town's most notorious sinner, and He did it publicly, in front of everyone who thought they knew better. Here's what strikes me about the sequence of events: Zacchaeus doesn't promise to change before Je...