Jesus, Restore Us

01-28-2024Weekly Reflection© LPi Fr. John Muir

I love movies about exorcisms. Apparently, so do many others. The 2023 movie Nefarious features a possibly possessed inmate on death row. Critics were not impressed, but audiences scored it at 97% on the website Rotten Tomatoes. Most people have an appreciation for the demonic realm, even if cultural elites are generally embarrassed about it. As is standard in exorcism movies, the afflicted person (in this case, a man named Edward Brady) thinks and acts like multiple persons. He is someone besides himself. We know what that is like. We feel fake sometimes, not ourselves.

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A Good Time for Fulfillment

01-21-2024Weekly Reflection© LPi Colleen Jurkiewicz Dorman

There are some things that always come at the worst time. I’ve never gotten a telemarketing call and thought, “This is a really convenient moment for me to listen to a sales pitch.” I’ve never seen the compulsory software update notice flash on my computer screen when I didn’t have a deadline I was struggling to meet. My kids never come down with the flu unless it’s the weekend and the line at Urgent Care is stretching out the door.

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Encounter God's Love

01-14-2024Weekly Reflection© LPi Fr. John Muir

As a priest, I’m amazed how happily married couples remember the tiniest details of their earliest encounters. They effortlessly report things like: “he wore a blue shirt,” “we ordered brussels sprouts,” “her hair was up in a bun,” and “he spilled shrimp cocktail sauce at my family’s open front door when it was ten degrees below zero,” (that one’s courtesy of my mom). We delight in remembering and speaking of when our new life of love began. The little details are glorious reminders that it’s all real.

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Step Into the Light

01-07-2024Weekly Reflection© LPi Colleen Jurkiewicz Dorman

How strange it is to think that if not for Herod’s directions, the magi would not have known where to find Jesus. They were not Jews, they knew nothing of the old prophecies. It was Herod who convened the scholars. It was Herod who pointed the way — for ulterior motives, certainly, but nonetheless, this is the part he played. It was Herod who made the Epiphany possible.

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The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

12-31-2023Weekly Reflection© LPi Fr. John Muir

I remember the first time my older sister asked me if I wanted to hold her newborn son. Terrified, I told her I didn’t think it was a good idea. My résumé had nothing to suggest I would be a qualified baby holder. But she warmly told me, “I’ll help you hold him.” It struck me that she is baby’s mother. She is the one who decides who is qualified to hold him. I took him in my arms and soon I began to feel comfortable with that tiny little warm cooing creature in my arms, and soon I no longer feared holding him. Now, twenty-seven nieces and nephews later, holding a newborn child is one of the great joys of my life.

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The Divine Gift of Christmas

12-24-2023Weekly ReflectionRev. Emmanuel I. Ihemedu

Dear Brothers, & Sisters,

As we gather in this blessed season of Christmas, our hearts and homes are adorned with the festive spirit, evident in the myriad gifts beneath our Christmas trees. These earthly offerings, though wrapped with care, often fail to capture the essence of true gifting – they may not suit our tastes, might be returned, or simply lack the personal touch we yearn for.

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Bear Witness to the Light

12-17-2023Weekly Reflection© LPi Fr. John Muir

Why do we believe in Jesus and the Catholic Church? Why should we continue to do so? We’ve never seen him face-to-face (at least not most of us, I assume). Most of us have never had mystical visions of angels or saints. We live in the same world as our atheist and secularists friends. Why do we believe in Christ if we’ve never seen him?

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You are my refuge in the day of disaster

12-10-2023Weekly ReflectionRev. Emmanuel I. Ihemedu

The road we travel as Christians is not always easy. Sometimes it is smooth; other times, it is bumpy, with potholes and detours. Some days, we are on top of the mountain; other days, we find ourselves in the valleys of life. Sometimes we have sunshine and beautiful sky days; other times, we have darkness and heavy storms of life. While it is true that our faith in God is supposed to bring us inner peace, joy, and fulfillment here on earth and ultimately win us favor in the sight of God hereafter, the truth is that unkind things can happen to good people.

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Foster Wakefulness of Heart

12-03-2023Weekly Reflection© LPi Fr. John Muir

Lately I’ve been listening to a science-based podcast on healthy daily living. The host frequently discusses the wide range of health benefits of sleep. So, each night I’m trying to get more, and better, slumber, and it’s helping me feel energized. So, why in the world should we follow Christ’s advice this week? “Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house will come … lest he find you asleep.” Isn’t sleep, especially at midnight and cockcrow, a good thing? Of course, it is.

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The King Comes Holding a Mirror

11-26-2023Weekly Reflection© LPi Colleen Jurkiewicz Dorman

Of all the many wonderful, thorough examinations of conscience I have come across, the one I normally utilize is very simple, and perfectly suited to someone like me who is not capable of profound thought at the end of the day.

It’s just one very short question: Which Christs did I not recognize today?

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Give Without Fear

11-19-2023Weekly Reflection© LPi Fr. John Muir

When I was a kid, I hated playing Monopoly because my siblings and friends always seemed to win. But worse was how it happened. Scared to risk my fake money on buying properties, I’d hold on to it. My opponents hungrily bought up the various real estate squares on the board. Then, inevitably, my poor, low-equity self would land on their spots, pay them rent, and my money would drain to zero. It seemed so unfair. The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. I had to learn that monopoly money is meant to be spent. I was scared to lose some of it. So, I lost all of it.

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‘You know neither the day nor the hour.’

11-12-2023Weekly Reflection© LPi Fr. John Muir

Lately I’ve been enjoying the deep meaning of Eastern icons. I love how they express a tapestry of meaning in a way that can surpass the written or spoken word. Today’s parable of the ten virgins from Jesus is a good example. Try googling “wise and foolish virgins icon” and you’ll see an image of how our Christ meets our heart’s deepest needs if we attend to him with the proper attitude.

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A Heavy Burden, Hard to Carry

11-05-2023Weekly Reflection© LPi Colleen Jurkiewicz Dorman

“Mommy, you haven’t been making any sacrifices.”

My daughter was peering through the little opening in the plastic cover of the “sacrifice jar” we made for Lent this year. The repurposed oatmeal container, jazzed up with glitter glue and pictures of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, was more than half-filled with little slips of paper bearing descriptions of the various sacrifices family members had made for one another.

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