“Let us pray in union with the poor people who suffer at the hands of the powerful. Let us ask that Jesus’ Spirit of healing and wholeness be poured upon the peoples who suffer in our unjust world.”

“As we approach...the Christmas Season, Christ’s birth among us, and the hopeful message of “peace on earth, goodwill to all.”...the Church reminds us today that we are not there yet. There is and will continue to be suffering till the end of time.”

“How God will use the pain we offer is not for us to say. But it is an act of faith to place our suffering in the hands of someone who loves us. And it also provides a purpose for the pain we must endure.”

“To call on Christ is to open our lives to love, and love brings pain; yet without Christ we suffer alone”

“The Lord has been pleased to crush/purify/bruise his servant because that servant is the Lord himself. He willingly underwent all that he did for our sake because he loves us more than we can possibly imagine. He shows us that suffering willingly embraced and endured is redemptive.”

“Thank God for Jesus’ example and call to: “heal the brokenhearted, bind up their wounds,” and thank God for the many who support us. We all do what we can, with the power Jesus gives.”

“God IS doing something very new. He is making healing an ordinary event.”

“When Christ was crucified, evil assaulted him with all its power. He did not fight back using the strategies of earthly power. He remained God, remained true to his nature of love, endured the evil, and overcame it. Because Jesus did that, we can, too”

“We are not called to be Stoics, emotionally withdrawn and proudly indifferent to pleasure or pain...Rather, we are graced, as Christ’s body, equally in the joy and pain which often are equally present in our lives, to connect with God in Him and others in Him, as social individuals.”

“The psalm says, “Your rod and your staff give me courage.” Courage is given by protection—from others who seek harm and sometimes from ourselves. That is God’s way.”

“The repentant thief has done what he could—he had no water, but he offers solidarity to Jesus in the midst of cruel abuse. And he gains a reward beyond what he probably imagined”

“The antidote to pride is total abandonment to the mercy of God, and total trust in his grace to empower us to turn from sin and live charity”

“In this Gospel, Jesus reminds us that there is a commitment higher than family bonds: the commitment to God Himself”

“God asks for faithfulness through the good and the bad. However, sometimes in the good times we do not think we need God’s help, and in the bad times we can blame God for all that is wrong in our lives.”

“I believe that friendship with God is open to all...How I express it may be like Martha one day, like Mary another. It may cause me to be honest in blunt, honest conversation like Abraham did one day, while I may doubt God’s work like Sarah the next...In any and all these things, it is the relationship that is important.”

“When we take up efforts for evangelization, we tend to think of strategies for outreach, of door-to-door canvassing, rallies, crusades, passing out brochures...but more fundamental is whether the local Christian community actually demonstrates love for each other.”

“He commands his disciples to love each other. We don’t choose who becomes a disciple. The Lord chooses them.”

“in addition to praying that God’s grace will put an end to some difficulty or suffering we may need to pray for God’s grace in our struggles with those difficulties and that suffering.”

“God does not forget the innocent victim. Injustice and cruelty will not have the last word.”

“sooner or later, we are probably ALL called to be loving in the face of the taunts, rejection, or out-and-out cruelty of others”

“The best place to begin the process of “self-giving” service is in our own homes and in the workplace. We have to look upon our education, training, and experience as preparation for service to others.”

“Let us quieten our minds and hearts to perceive the figure of Jesus standing before us no longer in Caesarea Philippi but at our door post. Let us listen to him asking us; “who do you say I am for you?””

“Faith itself is a gift. Faith enables us to receive grace, which is the power of God enabling us to act. Salvation is all grace; it is all God’s power acting in us, that is, the Holy Spirit.”

“Evasion is not a way to salvation”

“There is no situation, no matter how chaotic it may be, that God cannot subdue and make something surprisingly new out of it”

“No matter what type of suffering the world can throw at us, none of it can compare to what Jesus endured…for us. And he did not allow suffering to sidetrack His mission and His love of the Father…and His mission of sharing the Good News of the Father with anyone who would listen”

“let us always remember that a Christian without Christ is a contradiction in terms”

“let’s be like Joseph of Arimathea, who is not ashamed to be associated with Jesus even at the worst point of Jesus absolute rejection and apparent discrediting. In the midst of a society that rejects Jesus and what Jesus stands for, let’s not be afraid to be “seen with Jesus” in public, even if he is bad for our social acceptance and “upward mobility.””

“Today’s Gospel teaches us that new life and eternal life are possible only by the death of the self through obedience, suffering and service”

“It is precisely by going beyond what people expected of him that Jesus accomplished his saving mission”

“If the incarnate son of God needed to seek solitude to commune with the Father, how much more so do we?”

“To hope for the blessedness of heaven is not some psychological crutch for those too weak to look reality in the face, but an act of defiant hope in the face of the darkness of injustice in this world”

“we often fall into the temptation of thinking God’s punishment of our sins does not represent the idea of him being a merciful and loving Father”

“we are called to help lighten the burdens of others, as Jesus constantly does for us. To me, being Christ to others is the essence of missionary life. It is the life that we are called to as baptized Christians.”

“Should we worry about life, about our future and that of our family welfare? Yes. But what kind of worry? Is it the worry that allows God to take the lead or the one that puts him behind the bar?”

“My dearest, when we feel lonely and abandoned, when it seems that our prayers are unanswered, God knows and cares. His silence means a lot. Only those in the secret place of the Most High understand it.”

“So this is what God’s care looks like: not preventing all suffering but holding all things in being and never letting sin or death have the last word”

“our Christian faith motivates us; we believe we receive the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of baptism not just for oureselves, but for the common good”

“Prayer is not only an act but it is a way of life. It is an expression of our ‘belongingness’ to the Father.”

“God is so powerful, he can win by any means, even through weakness, pain, suffering, and other things the world holds as contemptible”

“The Power of God does not respect borders. It breaks through every land and in every people.”

“It is by stripping ourselves of pride attached to our status and background (even though we have to pass through suffering) in order to serve God and humanity that we can possess the eternal glory won for us by Christ.”

“Christ is...present with us in our major suffering; but he is just as present with us in the lesser challenges. He is quite simply with us at all points: the life-changing moments and the less significant moments that make up the bulk of most of our lives.”

“God’s justice will come at the appointed time. We must wait for it. This waiting does not imply idleness”

“We, as people of faith called to kindness, justice, and humble openness to God’s presence among us, cannot afford to lose sight of the persons around us who live extraordinary lives of daily struggle now”

“no single sacrifice and charity shown to the “Other” especially to the strangers, the homeless, the abandoned, the sick and all who cannot reciprocate our charity will go unrewarded. Our God takes account of every single charity we show to others.”

“But is it really possible for us to “do God a favor” by giving him a nice meal? We are going to discover that, while God graciously accepts our services, it’s really about what God does for us, not what we can do for him.”

“To share God’s love with others is in fact what Jesus asked Peter to do. And that is what God asks each of us to do as well, through both our words and our actions, today and every day.”

“Jesus comes to us most powerfully in our weakest moments – in the uncertainty, the isolation, and the times of hurt. When we are in these times and we have the awareness that we need Him and no one else can help us – He comes to us.”

“Christians, like all other people, will suffer and die. Yet we will not do so alone, for the suffering Christ is with us...We can only overcome our fear of death and find healing for our pain if we are united with Christ on the cross.”

“The secret L’Arche has learned and offers to all comers, is that although pain is real, it becomes bearable when shared, when accompanied with love, care, and concern”

“We are not to gloat over disasters happening to others, thinking ourselves exempt from the possibility of facing imminent judgement. No, we are to repent, to orientate our lives towards God and live out his mercy.”

“So the Readings this Sunday are calling us to discard our usual standards for judging success in this world, and adopt a radically supernatural outlook on life”

“life can be grossly unfair sometimes and perhaps the greatest unfairness of all is not the injustice of being victimized, violated, raped, or murdered, but that, after all this has been done to us, we’re expected to forgive the one who did it to us”

“Through Christ’s passion and death, we learn how God holds back nothing in bringing about our salvation”

“Everyone who believes can taste on their lips the goodness of Christ who loves and who suffers. This is our thanksgiving to God made known in Jesus, who wills to live and to suffer in each of us.”

“Surely we can all look back on our life or the lives of those around us and see similar experiences where something we felt was so bad or horrible at the time resulted in a blessing”

“There is a beauty in Christ’s Passion, His death and His Resurrection, and we undergo the same in our life”

“Our God is one we can worship with our whole hearts, knowing it understands what it means to live in a fallen world. That is the answer given to those who suffer, and we who walk with them: like Christ, we will come before the throne of God, and be exalted to the highest place, and see the light of life itself.”

“We’ve got to cry out to God, deep from the heart, deep from our very soul, letting it well up and burst out. Because what else do we have in these times?”

“God is so confident that we can overcome the temptations set us by the devil, that he never gives up on us, even at times when we might be tempted to give up on ourselves!”

“Jesus bears our burdens. In doing so, he is calling us to help others carry theirs...We are promised rest for ourselves, but only if, in imitation of Jesus, we endeavor to lighten the burdens of our brothers and sisters who call to us for help from all corners of the world.”

“Jesus comes to us. Rarely, it might be directly through a locked door, but most often, in times like these, Jesus comes to us through the community...Jesus is coming to us in the flesh, in a clear, tangible way. We just have to be open enough to see it.”

“I pray that when life gets rough for you one day, that you will be able to pause for a moment too, and remember a time when you felt the Lord’s presence most powerfully present in your life. Jesus never leaves our side. He’s always there, even during all the ups and downs and times of crisis in our lives.”

“We’ve got to be there for each other, helping each other out. Look for God in others we encounter, and let God use you as His instrument.”

“Sin is a reality in our lives. We see its presence everywhere in the world. The mistake is in thinking that it is not really our concern, that we can remain detached from human suffering or injustice at home or abroad.”

“Is the Judeo-Christian tradition of faith a litany of verbal values that move us at the hearing? Or do they challenge us...so that we prefer to leave them for saints and prophets to fulfill while we make our daily accommodations to the messy reality around us?”

“We need a new perspective. Sure, there is evil. But God will twist, and massage, and mold and sculpt the most evil thing that can happen and bring something good and amazing from it”

“The images of sacrifice come alive for me as I reflect on these readings because as a newly ordained Catholic priest, assigned to work in Guatemala in 1965, I witnessed so much killing, bloodshed and sacrifice among the people I served for those first 24 years”

“Often in being humbled by life’s losses and suffering, we are offered the gift of faith, and with it, the love that sustains and calls us to be more than we think we are”

“We must remain vigilant in our efforts to address the unjust structures and power arrangements that feed into this horrific reality”

“In today’s reading, prayer is the way that Jesus finds continuous strength to fulfill his ministry. Indeed, there is great peace and comfort in spending time alone with God and this gives a person the strength to respond in a world with so many needs.”

“Clichés may dull one’s life, but there are no clichés in Christ”

“For our part, where we live, with whom we associate, and how expansively we relate to the world will have a good deal to do with the extent to which we understand and incorporate these readings into our own lives.”

“Suffering can call us to forgive. It can make us humble and aware of our dependence on the love of God. We can be blinded by our pain, but equally, it can open our eyes to what ought to have been clear all along.”

“We have forgotten we are part of creation, not its consumers. Changing our ways, living by the true knowledge of creation which comes from God is to reign from the Cross of creation’s suffering. It is to put to death the old world of power as tyranny and exploitation.”

“When I think of the spirit of Guatemalans who continue to stand up for their rights in spite of the brutal and violent ways that they have been put down, I believe that they must have the faith that Jesus challenged the apostles to adopt in today’s reading from Luke”

“For the rich man in our Gospel there was no true understanding because the abyss he never crossed in his life on earth was listening to God in those who suffer”

“We need friendships and unity with all those who believe in Jesus Christ and his Father, to insulate us from the wolves of our own time”

“Tanzanians have a saying when things seem almost beyond redemption: “Mungu upo” – God is here...On this Good Friday, and in the days to come, let us stand for the values Christ died for and to build a community compassion, love and enduring trust in God.”

“The reality is that conversion takes time and a lot of grace. It requires us not only to make up our minds that we want to change, but also for us to be willing to work patiently with God’s help to allow the change to happen.”

“Such a profound awareness of the depth of the loving compassion of our God should radically transform us. It will also challenge us to reach out to the needy with Jesus’ compassion.”

“Nothing stands in the way of our ultimate salvation as much as our own ‘cosy’ Christianity, the sort that wants to be a follower of Christ on our own terms”

“What distinguishes us from the brute beasts is that we humans can identify and espouse ideals and insist on living by them, in the full knowledge that this will involve much personal sacrifice”

“Christians don’t opt out of the hard world. We live in it, but in an important sense, we’re not part of it, because we’ve been freed from the hardness in ourselves, so that for us, everything is possible.”

“The God we believe in doesn’t necessarily intervene and rescue us from suffering and death (although we are invited to pray for that). Instead he redeems our suffering afterwards.”

“In the first hours and days that follow a tragedy we don’t need to speak a lot, we need to touch a lot. We simply need to be there.”

“The joy of a Christian must be an authentic joy, a joy that goes all the way down — all the way down to the depths of sadness, indeed”

“The time of distress that Jesus warns us about is not some particular moment in future history; it is our continual struggle with evil that constantly puts us to the test. And so Jesus warns us to be on the watch, to be faithful”

“The solution Jesus offers us is his own suffering, a suffering which finally will mean the end of all our suffering, which finally will mean a new life in God’s new creation...We are faced not by an answer, but by a solution.”

“We can become so absorbed in our various immediate activities as to forget the wider life we were made to enjoy”

“To struggle is better than being despondent or self-righteously to sit on the sidelines criticising those involved in the struggle”

“The Church takes the same path as her Lord. For her too, it is necessary that she suffer these things, and so enter into her glory.”

“To be able to love and accept ourselves, to give someone else the support of love and maybe some guidance if it is needed...is to bring a kind of healing that is very real and very important. It may not be spectacular but it can still be a miracle.”

“We cannot postpone living until the cross is gone. That is why we are asked to take up the cross on our shoulders and follow Jesus.”

“we do not gain the strength to carry our cross by turning inward, by feeding our anger and our discouragement. We gain strength by turning outward, by finding some way to give, some way of touching the life of another.”

“on this Feast of the Holy Family, let us pray for the faith to accept redemptive suffering, the courage to reject destructive suffering and the wisdom to know the difference.”

“When life turns on us in a new way, it can frighten us. But the good news is this: when Jesus steps into our boat, he does not intend to leave. He will stay with us until he makes us the person we need to be.”

“The cross of Jesus tells us that suffering does not mean punishment...The presence of the cross is not the absence of love.”