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  Tuesday – 31 st Week in Ordinary Time Gospel – Luke 14:15-24 Excuses! Setting the Table, TN Home I’m too tired!   I don’t feel well! It’s too far!   It’s too late!   I won’t know anyone!   I have a project I must finish!   My car broke down!   I don’t have a thing to wear!   I lost my keys!   I’m grounded! Excuses!   If we’re honest, we use them a lot and most of the time they have no basis in reality.   We just don’t want to go to that party, that family gathering, that formal dinner!   Maybe it’s laziness or lack of interest!   Maybe we’re upset with the host or we don’t get along with some of the other ‘invitees’!   Whatever the reason, we make a lot of excuses! Today’s Gospel story of the Great Feast should be very familiar; just a couple months ago, we heard Matthew’s version.   Back then we focused on the guests, some who came unprepared and many who refused to attend.   But today let’s turn...
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  Monday– Feast of All Souls Gospel – John 6:37-40 The Other Side Inside The Tomb, Church of Holy Sepulchre   In Ireland, when you talk about emotion, you don’t say “I am sad”.   You say “sadness is on me”.     I love that because there is an implication of not identifying yourself fully with the emotion.   I am NOT sad!   It’s just that sadness is ON ME for a while.   Something else will be on me another time and that’s a good thing to recognize! We have all had ‘sadness upon us’ particularly when we experience the passing on of a family member or friend.   In just the past week, we lost a dear friend, spiritual director and teacher for many diaconal candidates in Chicago, Father Bernard Kennedy OFM.   And it was only early in the month that my family bid a sad farewell to my (uncle) Barry!   As we observe the Solemnity of All Souls today, we can all add names to the list – dear friends, family, cherished uncles and pa...
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Sunday – Solemnity of All Saints     Gospel – Matthew 5: 1-12A De-clutter! Chicago De-Clutter Back in mid-October when we spent 2 weeks at the family home in Southern Maryland, Ginger, my 2 sisters and I didn’t just deal with a mountain of Medicaid paperwork, legal and financial meetings, and managing my 101-year-old mom’s move to her new living arrangements in the nursing home.   We also began the process of downsizing the family home.   You would think I would be used to this.   It was only 2 years ago that it fell to me to sort through all our possessions, making choices of keep, trash or donate for our Chicago home.   But that was ‘only’ 40 years’ worth of stuff and memories.   For our family home, it is so much more complicated.   My dad built that house when he and Mom got married; so it’s been Mom’s home for over 79 years!   You can imagine how long this process is going to take! And as we began sorting through clothing, k...
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