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Tag: Good Friday

Good Friday

His body lifeless,
Tabernacle door ajar.
Where is now my God?

Author MegPosted on March 29, 2013March 29, 2013Categories BeautyTags Good Friday, Lent, prayer5 Comments on Good Friday

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mhunterkilmer

Catholic speaker and writer. Lover of Scripture, hater of generative AI. Probably up too late, probably craving dim sum and pastries.

Your girl is ethically opposed to generative AI, b

Your girl is ethically opposed to generative AI, but that doesn't mean I can't have an overly busy flyer with way too much information on it! (Which I made my very own self, so please disregard the "AI content" flag they added)

Get your copy of Eyes Fixed on Jesus Volume 2 from your favorite online book retailer or ask a local bookstore to order one for you ♥️

This week's Gospel hit different the first time I

This week's Gospel hit different the first time I realized that Matthew's the only one who wrote "treat him as you would a tax collector." I'd been using that line to give up on people, but Matthew knew that it meant, "love them so deeply that they turn back to the Lord."

Who have you written off as a lost cause? How can you love that person (or group) well this week?

Peter's being very Peter this week, and the Gospel

Peter's being very Peter this week, and the Gospel's got a lot to say to us about it—and about us.

(Also, this Dolly song is new to me and I'm LOVING it!)

The only thing more fabulous than this jumpsuit is

The only thing more fabulous than this jumpsuit is this book!

(Look, I've made a conscious decision not to learn how to optimize the algorithm because I think I could pretty easily lose my soul to an obsession there. But I do know that people interact with posts of me in this jumpsuit 😂😂 So I'm going to use that to try and tell you about this amazing book that'll break the gospels open for you in a whole new way. Grab your copy now!)

When your newest book arrives on the day Dolly die

When your newest book arrives on the day Dolly dies, you dress for Dolly the next day—featuring a sequined jacket (with a snatched waist) and a stack of books in honor of the literacy queen of Tennessee.

Blessed Stanley Rother felt helpless when his pari

Blessed Stanley Rother felt helpless when his parishioner and friend was being kidnapped. He stood there and watched as armed men (sent by the government) grabbed him and dragged him away. Fr. Stan had advocated for his people and stood between them and their oppressors, but sometimes, there was nothing he could do.

This image in the cathedral in Oklahoma City shows Fr. Stan standing strong, defending his people when masked men showed up with orders to abuse, intimidate, harass, and disappear them. He's a powerful intercessor for those of us who have to do the same, to stand between our people and those who have been empowered to terrorize them.

But (as I learned in the new documentary, American Martyr), he's also an intercessor for those who feel helpless, for those who may have seen neighbors taken away and been unable to stop it.

In that moment, Fr. Stan couldn't do anything. But he didn't let that helplessness define him. He didn't let guilt immobilize him. He kept seeking ways to lay down his life for his people, until finally, his life was taken.

Even then, he fought back, the bloody knuckles of his corpse evidence that he never stopped fighting for his people.

The situation we're living in isn't the same. Still, as we watch videos of migrants being abused and read articles about injustice and accompany people living in fear, I think many of us identify with that helplessness that Fr. Stan felt. If you're feeling helpless or weary or complacent or overwhelmed in the face of injustices perpetrated against the marginalized, that's natural. But we don't get to check out—not permanently, anyway. Fr. Stan is a reminder that sometimes we can't do anything—and that that's no excuse for doing nothing.

So if you've run out of steam in the fight for justice, consider this an invitation (and know that I'm looking in the mirror when I say this): start again. Find one thing, one way you can heed Jesus' call to serve the least of these, and do it.

And treat yourself afterward by going to see American Martyr in theaters this week. Tuesday and Wednesday in English, Thursday in Spanish. Fr. Stan, pray for us!

I've been giving you bits and bobs from Eyes Fixed

I've been giving you bits and bobs from Eyes Fixed on Jesus volume 2, but how about the whole section in this Sunday's Gospel?

This Sunday's Gospel is the foundation of a guidin

This Sunday's Gospel is the foundation of a guiding principal of mine:

I will not bind what Rome has loosed.

Like many of us, I tend to think my way is the best way. It's a quick step from there to thinking others are bad because they're not doing it my way.

But I'm a Catholic. Which means I don't actually get to make the rules. I can discern a personal call to a form of prayer or asceticism or advocacy, but I don't get to bind everyone else to it. Because we have a Church for that.

And maybe there are things the Church forbids (or requires) that I think she ought to allow (or make optional). But while I have the right to talk to my priest or my bishop or even the pope, it's not in my purview to offer dispensations. We have a Church for that.

If I'm honest, the latter is less my inclination. I'm much more interested in making everybody pray the way I do or abstain the way I do or dress or tithe or serve the way I do. I want to demand that all Catholics make public statements decrying racism, abstain from meat every Friday, and dress differently for Mass than they do for the beach. But the Church, in her wisdom, hasn't actually required those things. So when I find I'm judging people (which I shouldn't do anyway) for imaginary standards that only I know about, I repeat this to myself:

I will not bind what Rome has loosed.

One fantastic thing about our Church is that she doesn't have secret standards that only one priest on Facebook knows about or that were promulgated solely through some geocities website. So if you're out there trying to impose a standard on people, you can ask yourself a really simple question:

Where is it written?

Is it in the Code? The Catechism? Some authoritative document?

If not, it might be a GREAT idea, but it's not a rule. No old Vatican dress code or Saint's guide for fasting can be imposed on others—you may not bind what Rome has loosed.

The internet is a tough place to remember this, so I offer you this little graphic as a reminder for those times when you're gnashing your teeth or rolling your eyes at people being Catholic in a different way from you.

We don't get to bind what Rome has loosed. We have a Church for that.

Kat is SO EXCITED that Eyes Fixed on Jesus volume

Kat is SO EXCITED that Eyes Fixed on Jesus volume 2 is available for pre-order now (and already out on Kindle if that's how you like to read).

Seriously, she can't contain herself. Something about it being an easy-to-read, thoroughly researched, impassioned, beautiful book with an appalling number of Scripture references in the margins to pull you deeper into the Word than ever before.

Her words, not mine 🤷‍♀️

Anybody struggle with this Sunday's Gospel reading

Anybody struggle with this Sunday's Gospel reading? It took me a *lot* of years to find an angle on it that finally made sense of it for me, but I'm a huge fan now. This section is too much to share here, but you can grab the book on Kindle right now or pre-order and get it in your mailbox soon!!

(Bonus: ever wonder what the deal is with Tyre and Sidon? Get some context on the fourth slide.)

What can I say? 💅💅💁‍♀️💁‍♀️ #kindachic

What can I say? 💅💅💁‍♀️💁‍♀️ #kindachic

Still meditating on the fruits from this pilgrimag

Still meditating on the fruits from this pilgrimage (and still reminding you to go see this movie at the end of the month! Tickets are BOGO with the code ROTHER.)

My jaw dropped when I read this review of volume 1

My jaw dropped when I read this review of volume 1—and from a Dominican, no less! When a priest of the Order of Preachers ranks you with Sheed and Sheen, you tell your impostor syndrome to take a seat and you bask in that a bit.

If you're a Kindle person, volume 2 is available now! The rest of us will have to wait a bit, but not as long as Amazon is saying. I'm really hopeful you'll get your copies soon—and that I will, too! But you can pre-order now (and get a sneak peek at the inside on the Kindle page).

I want to know what part of this Sunday's Gospel i

I want to know what part of this Sunday's Gospel is hitting you hardest right now. Is it the feeling of having been abandoned by Jesus in the midst of your struggle? The uncomfortable (or bitter) certainty that he's the one who sent you into the storm? The relief of realizing that he's coming to you? The exhilaration of walking on water? The terror of crashing and burning? The comfort of being held and loved anyway?

Man, I could sit with this Gospel for the rest of my life and not be done.

There's no better measure of a film thank what its

There's no better measure of a film thank what its subject's family and friends think—and they loved it.

Best line of the pilgrimage, from a thrilled 4-yea

Best line of the pilgrimage, from a thrilled 4-year-old to her big sister: "You're peeing where Blessed Stan PEED!"

Watch me be so overcome by the beauty of being at

Watch me be so overcome by the beauty of being at Blessed Stanley Rother's house that I'm almost at a loss for words. (Almost 😉)

Hard to pick favorites from the section on the Fee

Hard to pick favorites from the section on the Feeding of the 5000, but these thoughts might give you something new to ponder during Mass. Come back tomorrow and let me know the highlights of your homily!

Run don't walk to buy your tickets to the new Bles

Run don't walk to buy your tickets to the new Blessed Stanley Rother documentary. You're going to love it!

Get excited! Eyes Fixed on Jesus (volume 2) will b

Get excited! Eyes Fixed on Jesus (volume 2) will be out soon! This is the fruit of the first 50 times I read the Gospels and I promise it'll help you love Jesus (and his word) more.

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