Reflection by Kathryn Getek Soltis St. Thomas of Villanova Parish Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time October 24/25, 2020 Exod 22:20-26; 1 Thess 1:5c-10; Matt 22:34-40 I want to share some brief reflections today. I am not speaking for the anti-racism committee, but my reflections do grow out of the conversations of this group of parishioners. And these are conversations that we hope might expand so they can include the voices and reflections of our entire parish. So this is just an offering of one of our parish’s many voices. Our Gospel today provides the perfect foundation – love of God, love of neighbor. These are the loves that structure our entire lives as believers. And they are the loves that bring us together – here or livestreaming – as [...]

Like all of us, I’m still reeling from the untimely loss of our dear brother, Chris.  Thinking about what to write here, I thought perhaps there is a way to describe a little of my life post-FVM while also honoring him somehow.  Shortly after Br. Chris died, I found myself sitting in my psychotherapy office after a particularly vulnerable patient of mine was a no-call/no-show for the third appointment in a row.  Grieving my recent loss while simultaneously worried to death about my patient, I realized these two things weren’t so unrelated.  In fact, I can directly trace the compassion, intimacy, and commitment with which I treat this patient to the influence Br. Chris had on my life and my work.  And so, this raises the question: Where else [...]

 I never could have imagined I would end up here today. And yet I could never imagine it any other way. Were it entirely up to me, I don’t think I would have done a year of service. God had other plans for me. It certainly is because of my faith that I ended up at FVM. What does that faith look like to take a computer engineer and plant them in a soup kitchen? My faith forces me to look at the brokenness of the world. My faith looks upon the poor and downtrodden with eyes of mercy, and causes me to cry out to God for their sake. My faith looks at the empty promises of wealth, pleasure, and power, and sees them just as that: empty promises. [...]

I think there are a variety of identities we all assume in our personal lives. Some of my identities include being a son, brother, cousin, and nephew. This past August I became a member of the Franciscan Volunteer Ministry (FVM), alongside my fellow community members David, Deaynna and Liam. One of the highlights of my time in FVM to date is that we as a community participated in a Christmas adopt-a-family program, which helps bring presents to kids in need. This was a huge project for us and it involved matching families in need who applied to the program with some of the generous donors who wanted to get involved with this program. These donors bought gifts for the kids and either delivered the gifts to the family or [...]

This blog post is an excerpt from A Lenten Journey: Reflections on the Scriptural Stations of the Cross. When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who was himself a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be handed over. Taking the body, Joseph wrapped it [in] clean linen and laid it in his new tomb that he had hewn in the rock. Then he rolled a huge stone across the entrance to the tomb and departed. Matthew 27: 57-60 Each step of the fourteenth station feels like its own miracle. First, Joseph of Arimathea was a generous enough person to consider donating his new tomb. Then, despite the doubtlessly crippling grief [...]