Formation Matters

¿Cómo era para José y María llegar a Belén y no encontrar lugar? Imagínense que llega el Salvador del mundo y no hay ningún lugar para acogerlo. Como ha de haber sido difícil para José, sentir la vergüenza de no poder ofrecer mejor lugar a María y a Jesús. Ha de haber sido difícil para María también ya que estaba cansada del viaje y ya lista para dar a luz al niño que llevaba en su seno durante ya nueve meses. Tienen experiencia de peregrinación, de pesebre y de pastores.

¿A dónde vamos durante este Adviento?

Estamos acostumbrados a tener un propósito claro para la Cuaresma. Quizás ofrecemos un sacrificio y se convierte en un largo camino hasta el Triduo Sacro y el final de nuestro sacrificio a la hora de celebrar la Pascua. Pero para el Adviento, no solemos pensar así. Estamos ocupados con los preparativos para la Navidad. Ponemos adornos en nuestras casas. Hay fiestas. Organizamos fiestas. Nos invitan a fiestas. Hay actividades en la escuela de nuestros hijos. Quizás tenemos un calendario de adviento, pero es más de comer chocolate que prepararnos para la Navidad de forma espiritual.

Quiero ayudarles a vivir mejor este adviento, sobre dos vertientes. Quiero que profundicen su contemplación de Cristo. La meta de toda nuestra vida cristiana es enamorarnos más de Dios. Es más fácil a través de Cristo, porque es Dios y hombre. Por ser Dios, merece todo nuestro amor y adoración. Por ser hombre, es más asequible a cada uno de nosotros.

Concluding the retreat, Fr. Martin preached the homily.

Fr. Martin Connor shares a talk with the California LC's reflecting on what attracts men to the Legion today.

Fr. Martin Connor preaches the retreat to the California LC's.

Cuando Cristo habla de los talentos nos prepara para la vida eterna.

Parable of the Talents.

God wants us to discover, develop and deploy our talents.

El Evangelio de las vírgenes prudentes nos muestra el valor de "ser" antes que "actuar". Es una lección muy importante para nuestro mundo.

We live in a world that is so focused on output and production to determine value. Contemplative religious help us to remember that life is not only about production. Being comes before action. Their being in the presence of God comes before any particular actions that they may need to perform to preserve their monastery’s way of life. They take as their model the Blessed Virgin Mary. She is the fruit of the Immaculate Conception, as we remember from the apparition at Lourdes. She had an absolute purity. Contemplative religious reflect this through their dedicated service in the shadows of the world. They are not famous. They do not appear on the cover of Vogue magazine. And yet, they are the women who have the deepest impact in the world. Their time of solitude and seclusion is the very definition of leisure. They have time to dedicate to the noblest of pursuits – the contemplation of God and his good works.

¿Cómo Jesús quiere que amemos al Padre?

What does Jesus mean when he says this?

How are we called to love our Heavenly Father?

Be faithful, true, and tough.

Saints Joan of Arc, Thomas More, and Isaac Jogues show us what we need to do if we are going to be saints.

Talk given at Guadalupe Radio to the boys and girls at the Family Retreat.

Mt. 23:1-12

How do we overcome our false sense of independence and let go of the bitterness of orphanhood?

In the faith, there are no orphans. We all come from the Father, and Jesus knows that we need to remember that. His prohibition to call others “father” is not a quick phrase to give evangelical apologists fodder to attack Catholics for calling priests “father.”

We call priests “father” as a sign of respect and hopefully it can help us bridge the gap to see God as our father. Unfortunately, the situation Jesus describes in the Gospel does not feel 2,000 years away. We are all too familiar with false teachers and hypocrites. But it would be a mistake to allow the foundation of our faith to crumble because of their bad example.

Getting married in the Church is a challenge and a mission.

Homilía 22 de octubre de 2023

Podemos sentir que somos indignos del amor de Cristo. Pero el nos reviste con su traje de bodas. Así nos hace dignos.

Mt. 21,1-14

Mt. 21:1-14

The movie The Greatest Showman tells a powerful story of a man who had to overcome tremendous obstacles to take care of his family and do something amazing with his life, beginning a whole new type of circus. And yet, one of the refrains of his life is expressed through the words: “never enough.” For so many of us, these words echo in our minds and hearts as well. We fear that we are “never enough.” Today’s Gospel gives us a clue about how to establish our identity in God and know that He is enough.

Los viñadores rechazaron al dueño. Se habían olvidado de la importancia de conectarse con Dios.

We need to learn to have an ordered love.

St. Augustine spoke a lot about this when reflecting on happiness.

Mt. 21,33-43

"Puesto que el amor crece dentro de ti, así crece la belleza. Porque el amor es la belleza del alma". (San Agustín)"Puesto que el amor crece dentro de ti, así crece la belleza. Porque el amor es la belleza del alma". (San Agustín)

Loving What is Right

Mt. 21:33-43 The evil workers in the vineyard show us what happens when love is disordered. We need to learn to love rightly and respond to God's grace in our lives.

“Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.” (St. Augustine)

La imagen del hijo mayor en el Evangelio de hoy me llama mucho la atención. Pues siento que soy yo. ¿Qué te está diciendo el Evangelio sobre tu tendencia de justificarte?

We tend to justify ourselves. This leads to a bad attitude in relation to God. We have to overcome this if we are going to be fully happy with God.