Bullseye Reflections

  SARA FONTANA presents an ARMOR OF GOD Family Challenge.... Take up the Armor of God challenge in your family. Print out this blog and use it for Faith Conversations and discussion during the month.   Discuss one piece of armor du ring dinner and use the Faith Conversation questions & tips listed below to have a discussion on how you, your child and your family can put on and use that part of the armor of God. Watch the Armor of God YouTube video with your children https://youtu.be/KxBHEkEzT3M Armor of God Song by BearHug band Research has shown that families who make the time to have family dinners together and have Faith Conversations with their children raise up adults who stand strong in their faith. The challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to have faith conversations in your family centered on Ephesians 6:10-18 which gives us direction on putting on the full armor of God so that we can "take our stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not a...

       St. Patrick used Celtic symbols like a Celtic knot to explain God’s love. In the same way Christians today can take secular love songs and use them to remind us of God’s love. I have done just that throughout my ministry with teens and families and even for myself personally. I have taken songs that are heard on secular radio stations and placed a Christian thought on the words of the song. That happened to me when I heard DON’T GIVE UP ON ME by Andrew Gramer.       Not soon after the Uvalde shooting a friend of mine sent me the YouTube video of Gramer singing the song with students. I cried as I watched it. I found a YouTube with the words of the song and watched that one and cried again as I imagined Jesus stepping into my great grief and sadness saying to me, and to all of us… No matter what this world will throw. It won’t shake me [Jesus] loose. I’ll reach my hands out in the dark and wait for yours to interlock. I’ll wait for you.   Je...

On August 8, 1981 we exchanged our marriage vows at St. Edmonds Catholic Church in Lafayette, Louisiana. We asked Fr. Fred Reynolds, S.J., the main presider at our wedding, to choose the Gospel reading for the mass.  He chose St. Luke’s story of Jesus riding into Jerusalem and people laying palms before him.  He shared, in his homily, that that is a strange reading for a wedding, but not a Christian wedding where a man and woman stand before witnesses and die to themselves in order to be resurrected as a couple set apart for the service and worship of God.  Together they take up their cross of living out the Sacramental mystery. The Icon Fr. Fred gave us to commemorate our wedding is a constant reminder of that celebration and his words to us. Through the cross is new life and joy in marriage. There have been temptations, distractions and incredibly hard times. We have gotten through these times by following Fr. Fred’s encouragement to recognize the mystical presence...

A prayer chain. A chain that captures a person, persons or event in thoughts and words lifted to God. A prayer chain. Intended to surround a person, persons or event with intense love. A prayer chain. Pleading words that God's love be manifested in the world and true freedom be realized within the person, persons or event that the prayer chain captures.   DICHOTOMY 

  A BLESSED PERSPECTIVE       I sat in church today and heard "The Beatitudes" being proclaimed as the Gospel.  I tried to count how many times I had heard that reading at mass, read it in the Bible or studied it in a Catechism class or retreat.  I've heard it taught as the "new commandments", the way Christians should live and the "be-attitudes".   Nothing connected for me.  Matthew 5:3-12 eluded my understanding.      The Deacon, in his homily, once again patiently explained to the congregation each of the eight characteristics that God wanted us to adopt.  Light bulbs went off in my head...the Deacon was trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.  All my life, I've been trying to figure out how I'm supposed to live these out, but Jesus was not trying to give us characteristics we need to strive to acquire or to live out.  He was giving the disciples and all of us a different perspective.  A blesse...

God through... God through me         is all the other prepositions             whirling around within me God with  me God for me God above me God beside me God in me               then bursting forth out of me.... God through me       into the lives of others God’s love through me to others      and God’s love through others to me.  God through...

GOD HUGS                                    “Mommy, I hurt myself.”   With tears streaming down her face, my daughter comes running to me, pointing to her skinned elbow.   I bend down, pick her up in my arms and give her a hug.   I carry her into the house and bandage the elbow.   Afterwards, we sit in the rocking chair and I let her rest in my arms a bit as we rock.   Then she’s off and running again, knowing that I’m nearby.               “Hugging” moments are special for parents. Cuddling up with the kids for a bedtime story, or back-from-school hugs or morning hugs or even spontaneous hugs are all treasured moments. As our children move into adolescent years, the open arm affection often is replaced by a   “leaning into” hug. (When...