March 2025 – St. Juliana Catholic Church

All Are Called / Todos somos llamados

Imagine being hated, rejected, and despised by your community because of the work you choose to do. People avoid you on the street, call you terrible names, and maybe even spit at you. After a while, you might get used to it and it wouldn’t bother you as much, even though you wish it were otherwise.

Then one day a powerful man who is greatly admired – maybe the next leader of the nation – comes into town. You expect He will despise you just like everyone else, but no. He looks at you. He sees you as you’ve never been seen before. It seems that He knows you in the deepest part of your being and He is not disgusted with you. Instead, He calls you to be part of his inner circle, to join Him on the journey. “Follow me.”

Finally, someone sees you, knows you, and wants you. Of course, you get up immediately and follow Him. You are ready to leave your old life behind. You had been protecting yourself from years of rejection, but you don’t need to do that anymore. You are accepted, not rejected. Loved, not hated. Included, not avoided. Finally, you belong.

Before the calling of Matthew, we read the story of the healing of the paralytic and the forgiveness of His sins. The healing was a miracle, but the greater miracle is God’s mercy extended to all who are willing to respond. Matthew responded. He followed Jesus. God extends His mercy to the outcasts of our time, just as He did to Matthew. Can we do the same? Can we see beyond the sin and see the broken person who wants to belong?

Finally seen, loved, and accepted, Matthew wanted his friends to know that joy, so he throws a dinner party for Jesus and invites the other tax collectors and sinners, the other outcasts.

Too often we wait to invite others to follow Jesus. We think we need to know more or be more perfect. We are afraid they might reject or ridicule us. We think they are beyond saving. Matthew shows us the way. When you are loved, you want others to know that love. He was called, in all of his brokenness, and knew Jesus would accept his broken friends. Matthew didn’t need to convince others, he needed only to bring them to Jesus.

In Matthew’s new life, there would still be those who hated and despised him, but he would not care because his life had meaning. He was an apostle to Jesus the Messiah. It was the most noble calling.

Can you leave your old life behind and follow God with your whole heart, mind, soul, and strength? He is calling to you, “Follow me.” He is ready to heal your wounds of rejection, hate, betrayal, ridicule. He sees you. He knows you – the good, bad, and ugly. He accepts you. He loves you.

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Imagina que tu comunidad te odia, te rechaza y te desprecia por el trabajo que has escogido hacer. La gente te evita en la calle, te llama nombres terribles y tal vez hasta te escupe. Después de un tiempo, es posible que te acostumbres y no te moleste tanto, aunque quisieras que no lo hicieran.

Luego un hombre poderoso y muy admirado, tal vez el próximo líder de la nación, llega a la ciudad un día. Esperas que te desprecie como todos los demás, pero no lo hace. Te mira. Te ve como nunca antes te habían visto. Parece que te conoce en lo más profundo de tu ser y no lo repulsas. En cambio, te llama a ser parte de su círculo íntimo, a unirte a Él en el camino. “Sígueme”.

Por fin, alguien te ve, te conoce y te quiere. Por supuesto, te levantas de inmediato y lo sigues. Estás listo para dejar atrás tu vida anterior. Te has estado protegiendo de años de rechazo, pero ya no tienes que hacerlo. Eres aceptado, no rechazado. Amado, no odiado. Incluido, no evitado. Finalmente, perteneces.

Antes del llamado de Mateo, leemos la historia de la sanación del paralítico y el perdón de sus pecados. La sanación fue un milagro, pero el milagro mayor es la misericordia de Dios extendida a todos los que están dispuestos a responder. Mateo respondió. Siguió a Jesús. Dios extiende su misericordia a los marginados de nuestro tiempo, tal como lo hizo con Mateo. ¿Podemos hacer lo mismo? ¿Podemos ver más allá del pecado y ver a la persona derrotada que quiere pertenecer?

Finalmente visto, amado y aceptado, Mateo quería que sus amigos conocieran esa alegría, por lo que organiza una cena para Jesús e invita a los otros recaudadores de impuestos y pecadores, los otros marginados.

Con demasiada frecuencia esperamos para invitar a otros a seguir a Jesús. Pensamos que tenemos que saber más o ser más perfectos. Tenemos miedo de que puedan rechazarnos o ridiculizarnos. Pensamos que están más allá de la salvación. Mateo nos muestra el camino. Cuando eres amado, quieres que los demás conozcan ese amor. Él fue llamado, en toda su fragilidad, y sabía que Jesús aceptaría a sus amigos quebrantados. Mateo no tenía que convencer a los demás, sólo tenía que llevarlos a Jesús.

En la nueva vida de Mateo, todavía habría quienes lo odiarían y lo despreciarían, pero a él no le importaría porque su vida tenía sentido. Era un apóstol de Jesús el Mesías y eso era el llamado más noble.

¿Puedes dejar atrás tu vida anterior para seguir a Dios con todo tu corazón, mente, alma y fuerza? Él te está llamando: “Sígueme”. Está listo para sanar tus heridas de rechazo, odio, traición, ridículo. Él te ve. Él te conoce: lo bueno, lo malo y lo feo. Él te acepta. Él te ama.

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Colleen Orchanian is a podcaster, blogger, and spiritual director who desires to help others have a more profound encounter with God. She is the author of three books: Nearer My God to Thee, Times of Grace, and Lingering with God. Her podcast is Food for Thought (Spiritually Speaking). You can learn more at ColleenOrchanian.com.

Feature Image Credit: German, art.diocesan.com/stock-photo/all-saints-day-image-13432/

The views and opinions expressed in the Inspiration Daily blog are solely those of the original authors and contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of Diocesan, the Diocesan staff, or other contributors to this blog.

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St. John of God, Confessor

Feast date: Mar 08

The Catholic Church celebrates the extraordinary life of St. John of God on March 8. The saint lived through decades of sin and suffering before a profound conversion that led him to embrace poverty, humility and charity.

John was born in Portugal during the year 1495 to middle-class parents. Tragically, at the age of 8, he was kidnapped by a stranger and was later abandoned to homelessness in a remote part of Spain.

He worked as a shepherd until age 22, when the opportunity came along for him to join the army of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. This apparent stroke of fortune, however, would eventually lead John into greater misery.

For the next 18 years, John lived and fought among the emperor’s foot soldiers, first against the French and later the Turks. His morals began to decline, as he completely abandoned the piety of his earliest youth for a greedy and brutal way of life.

John’s conscience was occasionally troubled, particularly by the memories of his early years before he was taken from his parents. And despite falling into a lifestyle of violence and plundering, he had a certain weakness for those who were poor or in extreme distress, and would give alms to them.

He was narrowly saved on two occasions from what seemed like certain death – once after instinctively uttering a prayer to the Virgin Mary after falling wounded in enemy territory; and again, when he was falsely suspected of theft and nearly executed but for another soldier’s intervention.

Events such as these weighed heavily upon him, and when his regiment was disbanded he decided to amend his life – beginning with a pilgrimage to Spain’s Santiago de Compostela Cathedral along the “Way of St. James.” There, he confessed his sins and committed himself to living a life of repentance.

Soon after this, he returned to Portugal and discovered what had become of his parents. His mother had died, brokenhearted, after the loss of her son, after which his father had become a Franciscan monk.

At age 42, John returned to Spain and picked up nearly where he had left off 20 years before, working again as a shepherd. This time, however, he was committed to living out the faith in God that he had regained.

He traveled briefly to North Africa, seeking to help Christians there who had been enslaved by Muslims. Eventually, however, he returned to Spain and settled for a time in the occupation of selling religious books and other goods, always encouraging his customers to live their faith sincerely. St. John of God’s later reputation as the patron saint of booksellers derives from this period of his life.

Later, however, he felt compelled to give himself entirely to the service of the poor, sick, and vulnerable. He opened his house to them – allowing it to become a combined hospital, homeless shelter, and halfway-house, run entirely by John himself. When he was not bandaging wounded occupants or breaking up fights between them, he would go out begging on their behalf.

The Bishop of Granada approved his work, and gave him the name “John of God.” A group of volunteers came to accompany him in his work, many of whom had first come to him while in dire need themselves.

Others, who resented his work, assaulted John’s reputation by focusing on his past sins – but John, unfazed in his humility, would acknowledge the truth of what was said, as a testament to God’s grace in his life. He once offered to pay a woman to tell the entire city what she had been saying about him in private.

John served the sick and poor for 15 years before meeting his death through an act of charity. He jumped into a freezing river and managed to save a drowning man, but came home shivering and weakened from the ordeal. He lay down in one of his own hospital beds, where his condition further declined.

The Bishop of Granada came to administer the last rites. As the bishop prepared him for death, John expressed a number of anxieties.

“There are three things that make me uneasy,” he said. “The first is that I have received so many graces from God, and have not recognized them, and have repaid them with so little of my own.”

“The second is that after I am dead, I fear lest the poor women I have rescued, and the poor sinners I have reclaimed, may be treated badly.”

“The third is that those who have trusted me with money, and whom I have not fully repaid, may suffer loss on my account.”

The bishop, however, assured him that he had nothing to fear. John then asked to be alone, and summoned his last strength to rise from bed and kneel before a crucifix.

He died in prayer, with his face pressed against the figure of Christ, on the night of March 7, 1550. St. John of God was canonized in 1690, and has become the patron of hospitals and the dying.

Saturday after Ash Wednesday

Reading 1 Isaiah 58:9b-14

Thus says the LORD:
If you remove from your midst oppression,
false accusation and malicious speech;
If you bestow your bread on the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted;
Then light shall rise for you in the darkness,
and the gloom shall become for you like midday;
Then the LORD will guide you always
and give you plenty even on the parched land.
He will renew your strength,
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring whose water never fails.
The ancient ruins shall be rebuilt for your sake,
and the foundations from ages past you shall raise up;
“”Repairer of the breach,”” they shall call you,
“”Restorer of ruined homesteads.””

If you hold back your foot on the sabbath
from following your own pursuits on my holy day;
If you call the sabbath a delight,
and the LORD’s holy day honorable;
If you honor it by not following your ways,
seeking your own interests, or speaking with malice–
Then you shall delight in the LORD,
and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;
I will nourish you with the heritage of Jacob, your father,
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 86:1-2, 3-4, 5-6

R. (11ab) Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.
Incline your ear, O LORD; answer me,
for I am afflicted and poor.
Keep my life, for I am devoted to you;
save your servant who trusts in you.
You are my God.
R. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.
Have mercy on me, O Lord,
for to you I call all the day.
Gladden the soul of your servant,
for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
R. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.
For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
abounding in kindness to all who call upon you.
Hearken, O LORD, to my prayer
and attend to the sound of my pleading.
R. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.

Verse Before the Gospel Ezekiel 33:11

I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, says the Lord,
but rather in his conversion, that he may live.

Gospel Luke 5:27-32

Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post.
He said to him, “Follow me.”
And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.
Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house,
and a large crowd of tax collectors
and others were at table with them.
The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying,
“Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus said to them in reply,
“Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do.
I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”

Readings for the Optional Memorial of Saint John of God, Religious

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Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

A Lenten Plan / Un plan para la Cuaresma

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Have you considered your plan for Lent yet? It is never too late, whether three days in or even three weeks in; finding ways to focus on Jesus is never a bad idea. I’m a planner and love making lists and organizing my thoughts. I follow a three-fold plan for daily prayer throughout the year but give it extra attention during Lent, which I refer to as the grace trifecta! It consists of prayer, the sacraments, and Scripture. This is the foundation of my spiritual life, the essential ingredients provided by the Catholic faith to nurture and strengthen our relationship with Jesus.

It’s funny how, when life is going well or busy, we can forget we need Jesus. Some people turn to God in times of trouble, and others perhaps are more faithful in good times. Jesus desires a full-time relationship with us, not just a part-time one or one reserved for difficult seasons or the 40 days of Lent.

Our Blessed Mother reminds us that being filled with grace is an immeasurable blessing. Grace is the undeserved yet freely given gift of God’s Holy Spirit within us. It empowers us to say “yes” to God’s call, choose the right path, and grow in faith and love.

Where does this grace come from? I believe it flows abundantly through prayer, Scripture, and the sacraments. Hence, why I lean into the grace trifecta as my spiritual lifeline.

So, how does this relate to Lent? During this blessed season, I focus on deepening these practices to strengthen them for the rest of the year. The extra grace that flows during Lent helps me stay grounded in my Catholic faith throughout the year. I create a solid plan to make the most of this time. While I know there will be moments when life gets in the way, having a plan increases my chances of growing closer to Christ.

This is also a time of fasting, a time to sacrifice a material good to make space for the supernatural ones only God can bestow. Ask yourself what you can let go of to make more space for the things that bring you closer to Christ. Let us use this Lenten season to prepare our hearts for the ultimate wedding feast, Easter, and someday, please God, the eternal union with our Lord.

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¿Ya has pensado en tu plan para la Cuaresma? Nunca es demasiado tarde, ya sea que hayan pasado tres días o tres semanas. Encontrar formas de concentrarte en Jesús nunca es mala idea. Soy una persona que planifica y me encanta hacer listas y organizar mis pensamientos. Sigo un plan triple para la oración diaria durante todo el año, pero le presto especial atención durante la Cuaresma, a la que me refiero como la trilogía de la gracia. Consiste en la oración, los sacramentos y las Sagradas Escrituras. Esta es la base de mi vida espiritual, los ingredientes esenciales que proporciona la fe católica para nutrir y fortalecer nuestra relación con Jesús.

Es curioso cómo, cuando la vida va bien o está ocupada, podemos olvidarnos de que necesitamos a Jesús. Algunas personas recurren a Dios en momentos difíciles, y otras tal vez sean más fieles cuando todo les va bien. Jesús desea una relación de tiempo completo con nosotros, no solo una de tiempo parcial o una reservada para las épocas difíciles o para los 40 días de Cuaresma.

Nuestra Santísima Madre nos recuerda que estar llenos de gracia es una bendición inconmensurable. La gracia es el don inmerecido pero gratuito del Espíritu Santo de Dios dentro de nosotros. Nos da poder para decir “sí” al llamado de Dios, elegir el camino correcto y crecer en la fe y el amor.

¿De dónde viene esta gracia? Creo que fluye abundantemente a través de la oración, la Escritura y los sacramentos. Por eso recurro a la trilogía de la gracia como mi salvavidas espiritual.

Entonces, ¿cómo se relaciona esto con la Cuaresma? Durante esta temporada santa, me concentro en profundizar estas prácticas para fortalecerlas durante el resto del año. La gracia adicional que fluye durante la Cuaresma me ayuda a mantenerme firme en la fe católica durante todo el año. Creo un plan sólido para aprovechar al máximo este tiempo. Si bien sé que habrá momentos en los que la vida se interpondrá en el camino, tener un plan aumenta las posibilidades de acercarme más a Cristo.

Este también es un tiempo de ayuno, un tiempo para sacrificar un bien material para hacer espacio para los bienes sobrenaturales que solo Dios puede otorgar. Pregúntate a ti mismo qué puedes dejar para hacer más espacio para las cosas que te acercan a Cristo. Aprovechemos este tiempo de Cuaresma para preparar nuestros corazones para la fiesta de bodas definitiva, la Pascua, y algún día (por favor Dios mío), la unión eterna con nuestro Señor.

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Allison Gingras (www.ReconciledToYou.com ) shares an everyday Catholic faith with humor and honesty. Her writing includes The Handy Little Guide to Novenas (OSV), Encountering Signs of Faith (Ave Maria Press), and the Stay Connected Journals for Catholic Women (Our Sunday Visitor), with a new edition “Jesus Heals,” coming in 2025. Allison is the Director of Digital Evangelization for Family Rosary USA.

Feature Image Credit: floraboss, pixabay.com/photos/deco-wedding-flowers-decoration-4705709/

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