Beads of Joy Blog II (2025 - 2026)

November 30 First Sunday of Advent First Sunday of Advent: Learning to Stay Awake Readings: Isaiah 2:1-5 / Romans 13:11-14 / Matthew 24:37-44 Setting the Scene Matthew wrote his Gospel around 80-85 AD for a struggling community in Syria, a mix of Jewish and Gentile Christians who were tired, disappointed, and wondering if they'd been fooled. Jesus had died and risen fifty years earlier. The Temple was destroyed. Many who knew Jesus personally had died. And still, He hadn't returned. They were doing what we do: eating, drinking, working, loving, living. Ordinary life. Jesus doesn't condemn ordinariness. He just asks one thing: Stay awake. The Heart of It "They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the flood came." Two people in a field. Two women grinding grain. One taken, one left. Not because one was evil and one was good. But because one was awake and one was asleep to what mattered most. Paul says it plainly: "You know what time...

Watch and Wait A Reflection on Luke 21:34-36 Look, Jesus isn't messing around here. He's telling you straight up: don't let your life get so clogged with worrying, about money, or what people think of you, your endless scrolling, your Netflix queue, your work stress, all that stuff that feels so urgent right now; STOP or you will completely miss what actually matters. Here's the uncomfortable truth: there's a day coming, and you don't know when, and if you're spiritually asleep when it arrives, you're going to be caught totally unprepared. That "day" might be the end of all things, but it's also every moment when God is trying to break through to you and you're too distracted to notice. This isn't meant to scare you into some paranoid anxiety, it's meant to wake you up to the reality that your life right now, today, is the training ground for eternity. So, what does Jesus say to do about it? Watch and pray. Not "worry c...

Implement: Putting God's Gifts Into Action God has blessed each of us with unique gifts, talents, and resources, not as ornaments to admire in private, but as tools meant to be shared with the world. The word "implement" carries a powerful double meaning: it refers both to the tools we've been given and to the act of putting those tools to use. Our abilities, whether they seem grand or humble, are divine implements placed in our hands with a sacred purpose. A skilled carpenter possesses not just the knowledge of joinery and finish work, but a calling to build and repair for those who cannot. A generous heart with financial means holds not merely wealth, but the capacity to lift others from struggle. A patient soul gifted with understanding children carries the ability to nurture the next generation. These are not coincidences or accidents of birth. They are intentional blessings from our Creator, and they come with a profound responsibility. The temptation to hoard ...

Thanksgiving Day Blessings: Beyond the Table A Reflection that brings Thanksgiving more fully into focus: When Jesus speaks about Jerusalem's destruction and the terrifying signs to come, it feels strange to read on Thanksgiving Day when we're trying to focus on gratitude and togetherness. But maybe there's something here we need to hear, especially today. Jesus is talking to people who are about to lose everything they've built their lives around: their city, their temple, their sense of safety and home. And on Thanksgiving, many of us know that ache too. Some of us are separated from family by distance or disagreement, by death or circumstance. We sit at tables with empty chairs, or we sit alone wishing we could be gathered with the people we love. Christ acknowledges that longing, that loss, that deep human need for home and belonging. He doesn't dismiss it. He knows we were made for communion with one another, and when that's broken or distant, it genuinely ...

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...

The Beggar Who Saw with His Heart A Reflection on Luke 18:35-43 There's something we might easily miss in today’s gospel if we read it too quickly. A man sitting by the roadside in complete darkness somehow recognized who was passing by. He couldn't see Jesus with his eyes, yet he called out to Him with a title that revealed the deepest truth: "Son of David", the Messiah, the long-awaited One. Those who could see Him walking among them often missed who He really was. But this beggar, with nothing but his need and his faith, saw clearly. It makes you wonder about the nature of seeing itself. Perhaps real sight has less to do with our eyes and more to do with our hearts. Perhaps sometimes it's our very emptiness, our awareness of how desperately we need mercy, that opens us to recognizing God when He draws near. The beggar teaches us that faith often begins not with understanding everything, but with crying out from wherever we find ourselves, trusting that Jesus ...

When Everything Falls Apart A Reflection on Luke 21:5-19 There's a moment in Luke 21 that should stop us cold. The disciples are marveling at the temple, the very dwelling place of God's presence among His people, adorned with beautiful stones and sacred offerings. And Jesus, looking at this monument to faith and sacrifice, says it will be utterly destroyed. Not one stone left upon another. Then He speaks of wars, earthquakes, persecution, families torn apart, disciples dragged before governors and kings. This is the Lord speaking. The Word made flesh. And He's telling His closest friends that following Him leads straight into the storm. What strikes me isn't just what He says, but who is saying it, the One who holds all things together is telling us that everything will fall apart. There's something almost unbearable about this, until you realize: He's the one thing that won't. Here's where it pierces deeper. After describing all this devastation, ...

Keep on Praying: Never Give Up on Prayer! A Reflection on Luke 18:1-8 Have you ever asked your parents for something really important, and they didn't answer right away? Maybe you kept asking and asking until finally they said yes? Jesus tells us a story about a widow who did something like that, but with a judge who wasn't even a nice person! This widow had a problem, and she kept going back to this grumpy judge day after day, asking for help. The judge didn't care about God or people, but guess what? He finally helped her just because she wouldn't give up! Jesus is showing us something amazing here: if even a mean judge will help someone who keeps asking, how much more will our loving God, who actually cares about us, answer our prayers? Here's the beautiful part that should fill our hearts with hope: God isn't like that unjust judge at all! He's not annoyed by our prayers or waiting to see if we'll give up. He's our perfect Father who loves us...

When Lightning Strikes: Stay Awake and Be Alert A Reflection on Luke 17:26-37 Jesus told his disciples something pretty startling in Luke 17: when the Son of Man comes, it'll be like lightning flashing across the sky, sudden, unmistakable, impossible to miss. People will be going about their normal lives, eating and drinking, working, shopping, just a typical day. Then boom. Everything changes in an instant. Two people will be standing right next to each other, and one will be taken while the other is left behind. It sounds intense because it is. Jesus isn't trying to scare us; he's trying to wake us up. Here's where the rosary comes in, you knew I would make a connection somehow, and it's actually kind of beautiful. When we pray the rosary, we're doing something that might seem repetitive or ordinary on the surface. We're holding beads, praying the same prayers over and over, thinking about moments from Jesus's life. But what we're really doing is...