Scripture Scribbles: September 14, 2025 - Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Dear hearts, this week has been difficult, hasn’t it? I am not usually attached to social media (or any media) but this week I have struggled to stop myself from visiting the infinite scroll of tragedy and horror unfolding. I am exhausted and heartbroken by all I have seen and read, by all that has happened, by the darkness and cruelty that abounds.
Then the Spirit whispers, “…But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” (Romans 5:20).
Scripture Scribbles: August 31, 2025
How do you stay grounded? How important is it to be humble in the eyes of God?
Humility is not too hard to do. It is even free because we don’t have to pay a thing in order to do it. However, because of pride, humility sometimes becomes just an illusion. The desire to be the first, to be on top on things, to be the greatest or the best, keep us from choosing modesty over conceit.
The gospel today teaches how to treat our poor brothers and sisters. God wants us to be generous without expecting for anything in return. Just plain giving. The gospel is also a very good reminder of how we should manifest humility in our everyday lives.
Scripture Scribbles: August 24, 2025
The virtue of strength—fortitude—doesn’t come naturally to me. My cousin nicknamed me “Kitty
Cat Karen” because of my meekness and timidness. Many school days ended in tears, shed
over others’ unkind remarks. I was too weak and afraid to fight back—I didn’t know how to.
Scripture Scribbles: August 17, 2025
Growing up, I didn’t understand this Gospel. Why would Jesus want to divide families, when families are so important? Would these divisions cause a complete cut-off from family members? It wasn’t until I started to follow Jesus more closely, that I began to understand. When I was a young adult, I decided to go to Mass which conflicted with a time my parents wanted to accomplish a task. I was divided between being obedient to them and worshipping the Lord. I chose Mass and it caused a small rift. There have been other instances - comments made from various family members, tensions of timing parties because my husband and I choose to go to Mass. At times, the mention of Mass, causes hairs to raise.
Scripture Scribbles: August 10, 2025
I have this desire to pull out each and every line of this Gospel; there is so much here that truly is speaking to my heart. My ADD is in overdrive as I try to keep some order to my thoughts. I’ll try to start at the beginning, no, not in Genesis….but in Luke 12:32 when Jesus says to his disciples: “Do not be afraid any longer…” Are you afraid? Am I afraid? I can read this and see the part that says; “Jesus says to his disciples” and I can mistakenly believe that He is not addressing me….but he is! That is kind of what we are all doing right? Being disciples? Trying our best to be followers of Christ? So if that's true, then he is also telling me, and YOU, do not be afraid any longer.
Scripture Scribbles: August 3, 2025
As I pray with this gospel, the Lord nudges me toward the request we hear today from the crowd. I smile because it sounds so familiar to me as a mother.
“Tell my brother to share!”
As my heart moves with a mother’s tenderness and love toward this voice in the crowd, the Lord reminds me that He also hears me with tenderness and love when I ask him for things.
And boy have I been asking for things.
Desperately asking.
Asking my friends and family for intercession.
Praying novenas.
Offering masses.
Asking the saints for intercession.
What I desire has been filling my mind and thoughts.
They are good things, these desires
But they are not the best thing.
They are not Him.
Scripture Scribbles: July 27, 2025
Prayer. What a loaded word.
What does it even mean? I spent years wondering that myself.
Maybe you can relate. I wonder if the disciple in today’s reading, the one who asks Him to teach them to pray, was struggling with some of these same things.
But then he saw the Lord pray.
And something awakened in his heart.
Scripture Scribbles: July 20, 2025
How often do we have guests? How hospitable are we?
Today’s gospel reminds us that preparing for and serving our guests is a good thing. However, God wants us to look at the bigger picture. The main reason we’re having guests is because they want to be with us, isn’t it? By this, I mean they want to spend quality time with us by sharing meals, exchanging stories, updating one another about minor or major changes in one’s life, going somewhere together, and the like.
Scripture Scribbles: July 13, 2025
A burly, disheveled man holding a torn cardboard sign with faded lettering stands as a seemingly permanent fixture at the intersection. He’d be a monthly budget item if I gave him something every time I passed by. At times, my response to him has been less than charitable—my judgmental mind quickly recalling 2 Thessalonians 3:10: “If anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat.”
Scripture Scribbles: July 6, 2025
What a rich Gospel for today! So much to unpack! As I grow in deeper conversion, boldly living my faith comes a little easier; however, reading the Gospel for today reveals to me an invitation to expand more and allow God to further transform my heart. Am I confident enough to proclaim in front of a crowd of people hostile to the Faith and shake the dust off my feet if they reject me? I’m not so sure. I would like to be, so I pray for that grace.
Scripture Scribbles: June 29 - The Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles
I love this, I love when the Gospels open up to me like a door, a door I can spiritually walk through. Peter spoke the truest words he knew, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.”
Jesus’ reply, that His heavenly Father revealed this to Peter, is stunning and at the same time it's the only thing that makes sense.
It’s the only thing that makes sense today.
If you have faith, and you believe that Jesus is the son of the living God….then do you know who revealed this to you? The living God!
Why? I don’t know.
Scripture Scribbles: June 22 - The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
“As the day was drawing to a close…”
This line catches me today. It is a little detail in the account of the spectacular miracle of the loaves and the fishes on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
The day was drawing to a close.
The expected time for ministry was drawing to a close.
The expected time for Jesus to heal and teach was drawing to a close.
Even Jesus’ best friends were confining his work to their own expectations, timelines and limitations that day.
Scripture Scribbles: June 15 - The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
He will guide you to all truth.
Full. Stop. Go back and read that again.
Do we really believe these words? Like, to the core of our being?
I wonder how different our lives would be if we truly did believe them.
Because these words, if they are actually true, change everything.
I think we often understand Jesus, but I wonder if we actually believe Him.
Today’s Gospel is one of those passages of Scripture that can knock the wind right out of me if I actually slow down enough to receive the words Jesus is speaking and let them sink into the depths of my being.
Scripture Scribbles: June 8, 2025 - Pentecost Sunday
The calm after the turbulence. The quiet after all the chaos. The solace after all the anxieties.
Today’s gospel is a very good reminder to us that the Holy Spirit is powerful and special. Jesus bestowed it to his friends after His resurrection. Upon receiving the Holy Spirit, we know what happened to Jesus’ apostles. On Pentecost, the followers of Christ were filled with the Holy Spirit that they turned courageous to become witnesses of Christ. They were on fire. They became steadfast, focused, renewed, and passionate.
Scripture Scribbles: June 1, 2025
Hardness of heart is something that I have always struggled with. I wasn’t born with a heart of stone. My sensitive nature, easily hurt by family member infractions, caused my heart to harden as I constructed protective barriers. A memorable confession 20 years ago began the break down of these walls. “You need to forgive and love,” my confessor said gently and calmly. “I can’t!” I responded stubbornly, somewhat shocked by my audacity to challenge a holy priest’s guidance. Undeterred by my childish response, he leaned closer, looked me straight in the eye, and slowly, clearly, and firmly intensified the words, “Yes, you can.” He leaned back and continued, “With God’s grace, you can do anything.”
Scripture Scribbles: May 25, 2025
As I leave my little one in the arms of another, tears flow down her cheeks in hysterics. My two-year old gives me a concerned look as I reassure him I will return to the nursery. My five year-old clings to me, trying to hide as I drop him off in his classroom. My older two, trusting I will return, flee to their classrooms, carefree and happy.
Reading this Gospel, reminds me of a theory I learned about healthy attachments. Small children get upset when their parents, their safe haven, leave. Eventually, they calm down because they trust their parents will return.
Scripture Scribbles: May 18, 2025
‘I give you a new commandment; love one another.’
What word stood out to you? While I attempted to unpack this short and sweet Gospel, wanting desperately to pull out the Good News, my eyes lingered on one word……commandment!
Jesus didn't make a suggestion to His disciples, he gave them a new COMMANDMENT.
He made it very clear what he expected of them; love one another. Not as we love ourselves, but ‘As I have loved you.’ Do you think the disciples were questioning, ‘well, how much do you love us Jesus?’ They very well may have. He had not yet died on the cross, He had not yet
Scripture Scribbles: May 11, 2025
I remember when I encountered these verses in John’s gospel in the early days of my conversion. By that point I had intellectually concluded that Jesus lived, died and was raised from the dead and that he very likely was who he claimed to be in the Gospels. I was reading about the lives of the saints and listening to podcast after podcast all describing intimate relationships with this man and the joy and peace relationship with him brought, regardless of circumstance. But I felt trapped in my own head. I didn’t know how I could have a relationship like that.
Scripture Scribbles: May 4, 2025
have always loved mornings.
And breakfast.
And the sea.
So, in a special way since my conversion, I’ve felt that this Scripture was especially for me. My heart glows in a unique way each time I read these words from today’s Gospel.
Scripture Scribbles: April 27, 2025
They “saw and believed.” Jesus is risen! Believe in the Resurrection, the most important mystery of our faith, the central teaching of Christianity. More than 500 people saw Jesus alive and were willing to undergo torture and die rather than deny this truth. When challenged to investigate Jesus’ Resurrection, once skeptic Sir Lionel Luckhoo (the most successful attorney in the world) after his extensive investigation concluded, “I say unequivocally that the evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is so overwhelming that it compels acceptance by proof which leads absolutely no room for doubt.”