Author: Sr. Kathryn J Hermes, FSP

The image that has drawn me in my ministry is Touching the Sunrise. I believe each person, no matter where they are and what they have lived, is a temple of the Trinity and can, indeed, taste the presence of God within. You can find resources for healing and prayer and follow me at touchingthesunrise.com.

Saint Joseph Teaches Us the Next Best Step (Matthew 1)

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Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
    and they shall name him Emmanuel,”

which means, “God is with us.” When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife.

Mt. 1:16, 18-21, 24a

Mary and Joseph, two different “annunciations” from the angel, two different tasks in the mystery of salvation, two different paths to holiness, united in one love to hand themselves over to the work of the redemption being accomplished by God in Christ Jesus, Son of God and Son of the virgin Mary.

Joseph struggled when he discovered Mary was with child. Whether his anguish flowed from his feelings of unworthiness or from incomprehension of what was happening, the result was the same: he planned to dismiss Mary quietly. It was only the annunciation of the angel that put his heart at ease. Immediately upon awaking, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife.

In our families and communities, each of us has a different role in the mystery of salvation. We are different personalities. We each follow the Spirit’s invitation, yet the full horizon of this call remains a secret to ourselves as much as it is an unknown to others. The way our place in the drama of salvation unfolds is gradual and often shrouded in mystery.

When I’m not quite getting someone I live with, I’d love for an angel to show up, even in a dream, and let me in on the details! How much easier it would be to respect people who are clashing with me if I could see the plan God was accomplishing through them. Actually Joseph, though he had an angelic visitation to resolve his doubts, was just told the next step God required of him and no more. For the rest he had trust the Providence of God and he needed to trust Mary.

Joseph teaches me how to take the next best step and to trust that God is working out something far beyond my wildest imagination. There are many “angels,” sometimes they show up as inspirations, a word from Scripture, a thoughtful comment from a friend, a combination of events that make the next step so abundantly clear it can’t be doubted. Trust, on the threshold of mystery, is always a risk and a choice. It is a determined turning away from the doubts and rationalizations of the past toward the possibilities and promises of a future rich with God’s presence.  

Image Credit: Toros Roslin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Praying with this Passage of Scripture

Lectio Divina is a way of listening to God as he speaks in his Word. It is a practice of communicating with God through Scripture and attending to God’s presence and what he wishes to tell us. In this slow and prayerful reading of the Word of God, we allow ourselves to be transformed by the Spirit who forms us into the image of Christ. There are four movements in Lectio Divina: Read (lectio), Meditate (meditation), Pray (oratio), Contemplate (contemplation).

Begin by finding a still space to pray. Breathe deeply and become quieter within. Abandon any agenda, worries or thoughts you bring to this prayer and entrust these things to the merciful care of God. Ask for the grace to be receptive to what God will speak to you through this Scripture reading. Grant me, Jesus Divine Master, to be able to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God and your unfathomable riches. Grant that your word penetrate my soul; guide my steps, and brighten my way till the day dawns and darkness dissipates, you who live and reign forever and ever Amen.

Read (lectio)
Begin by slowly and meditatively reading your Scripture passage out loud. Listen for a particular word or phrase that speaks to you at this moment and sit with it for a time.

Pray (oratio)
Read the text a third time. Listen for what God is saying to you. Speak heart to heart with God. Notice the feelings that this conversation with God raises up within you. Share with God what you notice about your response to this conversation. You may wish to return to repeating the phrase quietly and gently, allowing it to permeate you more and more deeply.

Contemplate (contemplatio)
Read the text a final time. Now be still and rest in God’s embrace. Ask God to give you a gift to take with you from this prayer. You might ask God if he is inviting you to do some action, for instance, make some change in your thoughts, attitudes or reactions, in the way you speak or how you treat others. Thank God for this gift and invitation as you conclude your prayer.

Image: Myriams-Fotos; pixabay.com

Lectio Catolica: Living in Joy in Difficult Days

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Sometimes I get snagged by what I would call, for me, over-following the news, reading different angles, commentaries, opinions…. I like to figure things out. It’s like a puzzle, a divine puzzle: What is God doing and what is going to happen and what does it all mean…. I found this from the Prelate of Opus Dei, Fernando Ocáriz, in a letter issued March 10, 2025. In his latest pastoral letter, the prelate of Opus Dei, Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz, reflected on how Christians should live joyfully in the context of “difficult times.” This reminded me to live on the level of faith even as I tread with my brothers and sisters through the chaos of these difficult days:

These are difficult times in the world and in the Church. Actually, in one way or another all times have had their lights and shadows. For this reason it is especially necessary to foster a joyful attitude. Always and in every circumstance we can and should be happy, because this is what our Lord wants: “that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (Jn 15:11). He said this to the apostles and, in them, to all of us who would come afterwards. Therefore “joy is a condition proper to the life of the children of God.”[1]

This joy in the Lord is the joy of faith in his fatherly love: “Cheerfulness is a necessary consequence of our divine filiation, of knowing that our Father God loves us with a love of predilection, that he welcomes us, helps us and forgives us. Remember this and never forget it: even if it should seem at times that everything is collapsing, nothing is collapsing at all, because God does not lose battles.”[5]

Nevertheless, in the face of difficulties or suffering, our personal weakness can cause this joy to wane, especially because of a possible weakness at those times of our faith in God’s omnipotent love for us. “A child of God, a Christian who lives by faith, can suffer and cry; he or she may have reasons to be sorrowful, but never to be sad.”[6] And therefore in order to foster, or recover, joy, it is good to renew the conviction of our faith in God’s love. This conviction enables us to say with St. John: “We have come to know and believe the love God has for us” (1 Jn 4:16).

Faith tends to express itself, in one way or another (with words or without words), in prayer. And with prayer comes joy, because “when a Christian lives by faith, with a faith that is not merely a word, but a reality expressed in personal prayer, the certainty of divine love is manifested in joy, in interior freedom.”[7]

Being the Child God Made You: God Calls Us into Existence to Exist Before Him

Published on by Sr. Kathryn J Hermes, FSP2 Comments

When I ask Jesus to show me who I am in his eyes, it is always a child, and not just a static image of a child, but a toddler playing in a sandbox: safe, without a worry in the world, trusting…

Jesus has been showing me lately that all the adult things I have had to do in the last 40 years of my life, though important, though blessed, though gifted and talented, are not really what life is all about. It is this image of a child throwing sand into the air and giggling who is, at the core of my existence, the “little child” Jesus calls unto himself, the child God made because he loved her from before the foundation of the world (see Eph. 1).

“Accept being able to play and be loved”

Can you say to yourself, “God made something beautiful and strong and good and tender and kind when he made me.” What do you feel deep within yourself when you say these words about yourself? Can you notice your thoughts, any emotions, even physical sensations?

In my early steps of my own journey to accept being loved by God, I noticed that I would physically resist believing this: my stomach would tense up, my mind would freeze, and my emotions become rock.

One thing that will help you become the Child you are…

In a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed for about 30 minutes, say this sentence quietly to yourself:

“God made something beautiful and strong and good and tender and kind when he made me.”

Pause and get in touch with how you are reacting or responding to this tiny credo in God’s goodness that lies at the root of all joy. Just notice. Observe any thoughts, any emotions, even physical sensations….

After a while repeat this credo and spend some time noticing once more.

Finally say to your heart: “It’s okay. I see you responding in this way. I can understand that. I can sense what you are needing, even if I can’t give it to you right now. I want you to hear these words which are true: “The God who created you, loves you each and every day, in each and every moment of every day of your life. He can’t stop loving you, because he himself is love. Even if you can’t hear these words now, they are true. Someday you will be able to welcome them and entrust yourself to the One who made you with great trust. I promise.”

Still, God, you are our Father. We’re the clay and you’re our potter: All of us are what you made us. (Isaiah 64 MSG)

Image by ymyphoto from Pixabay

Lectio Catolica: Radical availability to God

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I’ve been thinking about Lent. I always wait until little by little God helps me see what he wants of me. Giving up chocolate is both easy and difficult at the same time, and I tend to get wrapped up in the temptation of it all, which I think misses the point. I get wrapped up in a piece of candy, which means wrapped up in myself.

Instead I’m thinking of availability—radical availability to God who desires to give himself away to me at every instant. It’s radical focus on God, the absolute priority of God, a total relationship with him. And, at the same time, it is also radical availability to the other. Pope Francis in this Lenten Message for 2025 suggested we ask ourselves every day how our own life differs from that of an immigrant. This has captured my imagination, and for Lent I want to ask myself once a day how my life differs from someone who just lost their job, or, on another day, an immigrant, or someone fighting a war, or someone being persecuted for their faith, or someone living without clean water. I want to open my heart to the world and then do whatever he tells me. One day it might be to create a meal out of leftovers, another day to watch a youtube video of the stories of a particular group of people who are suffering and to offer a prayer, another day to skip a meal, another day to hold my tongue…. It is not so much about things I do, but to practice living from a different ground of being, the ground where God gives himself away to me, and I learn to give myself away also. The ground of true being, the true self, is love.

“There are two fundamental ways of being human in the world: trusting in our human resources and abilities or radically trusting in God. You cannot be grasped by or sustained in the deeper life in God—being like Jesus—until you are awakened at the deep levels of your being to this essential reality. It is the journey from living out one’s false self to living as our true self in Christ—a self that is deeply centered in and utterly abandoned to God.

The reality of the “false self”—this pervasive, deeply entrenched, self-referenced structure of being as the primary context of our spiritual journey—is one of the hardest things for us to acknowledge. We tend to think of the false self as a “surface phenomena” that can be treated by a few cosmetic alterations in our behavior. We are slow to accept the fact that our false self permeates all the way to the core of our being. It is hard to admit that we are profoundly habituated to a self-referenced way of being in the world that manifests itself in characteristics such as being fearful, protective, possessive, manipulative, destructive, self-promoting, indulgent, and making distinctions so as to separate ourselves from others.

Jesus makes the reality of the false self unmistakably clear when he says, “If anyone would come after me, they must deny themselves,” and, “Whoever loses their self for my sake will find it” (Mt 16:24-25). Jesus is not talking about giving up candy for Lent. He is calling for the abandonment of our entire, pervasive, deeply entrenched matrix of self-referenced being so we can enter into a life of loving union with God that manifests itself in Christlikeness.

This is a life of radical abandonment to God in love and equally radical availability to God for others so that in all circumstances and relationships our life becomes one in whom God is present for others.

The life hidden with Christ in God is one of such growing union with God in love that God’s presence becomes the context of our daily life, God’s purposes become the matrix of our activities, and the values of God’s kingdom shape our life and relationships; God’s living presence becomes the ground of our identity, the source of our meaning, the seat of our value and the center of our purpose. And that way of being in the world is life indeed!”

M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., excerpted from The Deeper Journey: The Spirituality of Discipleship