It seems that in our world today everyone thinks that they are too busy. We are controlled by our calendars and lists. Even retirees pull out their calendars when they are invited to lunch or dinner. Young people run from one event to another after school and the biggest complaint among teenagers is that they have no time for themselves. These schedules and calendars do help us to keep our lives focused, but they also can be stumbling blocks on our path to real happiness and meaning in our lives. If we listed the values we have in order of priority, and then listed the things we spent time on, most of us would find that we spend very little time on the things we cherish the most.

The Lord invites each and every one of us each day to spend time with Him in prayer. He calls us daily to reach out to Him in our neighbors whether they live next door or are homeless in our community. We respond by looking at our schedules and reply that we are too busy. Sometimes we openly reject Him by ignoring the needs of our brothers and sisters. Yet, each minute of each day, the Lord is inviting us. Will we put the Lord on our calendars and schedules? Will we let Him turn our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh? Will we come to the banquet unprepared?

Your brother in Christ,
Father Dominic

Today’s celebration, indeed our very faith, is all about looking to the future with great joy based on our experience of the past and the present. The person who makes this glimpse of a wonderful future is Mary. She has said yes to God’s request that she be the mother of the Messiah.

Today we celebrate the Assumption of Mary; another foreshadowing of that to which we joyfully gaze. God has brought Mary to be with him in His kingdom in body and soul. He has done so in gratitude and love for her complete gift of herself to Him. He promises this same gift to all who fully offer themselves to Him, it is a gift which Christ Jesus shall bring with Him at His second coming.

Today we look hopefully to the future with committing ourselves to God in the present. This glance into the kingdom of God urges us to strive to grow stronger in our faith and love of God. Jesus makes this possible for us in His death and resurrection. Mary offers us a model whose example we seek to follow, and the Holy Spirit offers us the guidance and strength we need.

Your brother in Christ,
Father Dominic

Modern society continually strives to explain the impossible. How did the earth first begin? Did God create it as we know it today? Is it the result of some big bang? Where did the universe start, in which corner? Does the universe have corners? The age of information has brought its own form of skepticism and its own form of scientific truth?

There was a time when miracles were explained with a shrug and the response, "I don’t know how it happened but I am sure there is an answer." Today we no longer explain miracles with a shrug. We, in fact, want to know how the miracle took place. We have a burning desire to explain the unexplainable. These burning issues, these great desires to explain the unexplainable, are often a camouflage for the inability to explain our daily lives. We seek answers to questions about major events and major happenings in life, like the person who is suddenly cured from an incurable cancer. Yet when it comes to explaining the happenings of our daily lives we stand in a wilderness, unable to give a clear response as to why we behave the way we do or why we are the type of person that we are.

Jesus defined and explained the impossible, the type of impossible to concern us, to consume us, and bring us forth in the world to do likewise in our own lives. Do we need scientific explanation for the unexplainable or do we define the possible as love of our brothers and sisters; as feeding those in need and giving water to those who are thirsty. This is the message that Jesus brought into the world.

Your brother in Christ,
Father Dominic

We are to love each other with the same intensity that Jesus loves us. Think about His love for us. In Saint Paul’s letter to the Colossians, he tells us that all things, whether in heaven or on earth, whether visible or invisible, were created through and for Him. This all-powerful Lord, by whom the universe was created, loves us so much that He was willing to lay down His life for us.

So what does it mean to love one another? It does not mean that we have to like everyone – rather, it means that we have to treat others as we would want to be treated. It means that we have to forgive people, accepting of others regardless of past hurts. It means that when someone is suffering or is in need, even someone we do not like, we do what we can to help. It means that we hope for the best for every person as a brother or sister because we all have been created by God.

Your brother in Christ,
Father Dominic