St. Anthony's of Farnham

09/11/2026

On this day of remembrance for all those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001, it is a good moment to reflect on loss and grief.

​When we suffer trauma or loss, we are stunned and can become numb. After the initial shock wears off, we can experience stress, disorientation, anger, anxiety, and depression. We can also fall into self-blame.

We all adopt various coping mechanisms, some healthy and others unhealthy. We may think and say things like, “I just want to move on” or “I’m ready to put this whole thing behind me.” But you can’t just move on. You have to deal with it. Physical wounds get worse and can become life-threatening if you ignore them. Emotional wounds respond in exactly the same way. So do psychological and spiritual wounds.

​And you can’t just put the whole thing behind you. It’s part of who you are now. You may be able to control your emotions for a time, but grief affects the whole person: physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually.

Saint Paphnutius was horribly tortured during the Christian persecutions of the fourth century. He survived, but that did not mean recovery was easy.

Paphnutius was one of the Desert Fathers in Egypt under the mentorship of Saint Antony the Abbot (see January 17). However, he was dragged out of the desert when the Roman Emperor Maximinus II had him arrested. His persecutors gouged out his right eye and permanently crippled his left leg. Eventually, the persecutions came to an end under a new emperor, and Paphnutius was made a bishop.

The process of grieving his losses was undoubtedly painful for Paphnutius. But this unexpected and unwelcome turn his life had taken did not deter him from moving forward. Instead, it deepened his faith and reliance on God.

Saint Paphnutius went on to play a significant role in the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. He died around the year 360.

When horrible things happen to us, we want to believe that there is a proper way to deal with the experience, to process it, to heal from it. Maybe there is and maybe there isn’t. One thing is for sure and that is this: It is messy. But God isn’t afraid to enter into our messes if we let him.

Today, let’s remember all those who lost their life on September 11, 2001. Let’s pray for everyone suffering from the grief they feel on that day. Let’s grieve with them, and let’s pray together.
Matthew Kelly

09/11/2026

"The Lord withholds no good thing from those who walk in sincerity." Psalm 84:12

09/11/2026

"How can you say to your brother, "Brother, let me remove the speck from your eye, yet fail yourself to see the plank lodged in your own?" Luke 6:42

09/11/2026

Readings Sept. 11th:
1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-27; Psalm 84:3-6, 12; Luke 6:39-42

09/11/2026

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus commands us to stop judging others. He asks, “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?” We are exceptionally good at seeing the fault in others, but we are exceptionally adept at ignoring it in ourselves.

There was a very popular book that came out when I was a teenager. It was called I’m OK—You’re OK. It represented the culture of exculpation and feel-good-about-yourself. Not many years ago, Christina Aguilera crooned, “I am beautiful in every single way, and words can’t bring me down.” Look at so many of the debates today; the attitude that is winning is one of self-invention and self-assertion. “Who are you to tell me how to behave?”

In all of this, we are fundamentally looking away from our guilt, our fault, our darkness. We are effectively drugging ourselves, dulling the pain of real self-consciousness. In the process, we turn ourselves into God, pretending to be absolute, flawless, and impervious to criticism. So “remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.”
Bishop Robert Barron

09/11/2026

09/11/2026

Dear God, thank You for Your comfort.

09/11/2026

Weeping may stay for the night, �but rejoicing comes in the morning. Psalm 30:5

09/11/2026

“When we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy, we are paying a debt of justice.” Pope Saint Gregory the Great

09/10/2026

There are times when Jesus is abundantly clear, and times when it requires more effort to really understand what he is trying to share with us.

Here is one teaching which has an abundance of clarity: “Do not judge.” (Matthew 7:1)

When we judge others, what does that say about us? Saint Nicholas of Tolentino chose not to judge others, and his life spoke volumes.

Nicholas was born on the Italian island of Sant'Angelo in 1245. When he turned 18, he traveled to the mainland to become an Augustinian monk. Immediately, he began ministering to criminals and to the poor, making sure they had enough to eat and giving them spiritual counsel.

One day, Nicholas had a mystical experience in which he heard a choir of angels singing, “To Tolentino, to Tolentino!” God was calling Nicholas to travel to Tolentino, a city in Northern Italy experiencing great moral decline. Again, Nicholas began serving criminals and the poor with a non judgemental heart. His kind and gentle manner led his superiors to entrust him with the daily feeding of the poor at the monastery gates. His generosity was so lavish that the monastery’s treasurer begged his superior to make Nicholas stop giving away so much.

Saint Nicholas of Tolentino worked with those society judges harshly, but chose to see them all as beloved children of God.

Let’s return to the question we posed earlier: When we judge others, what does that say about us?

The first thing it says is that we are lazy, because judging is a short cut. It requires very little thinking, and it requires almost no emotional intelligence.

Our brains are wired to make quick judgements so that we can move through this world and not get crippled by every situation that captures our attention. But people are not situations, and they are not things. Each person is mind-bogglingly unique if we pause long enough to experience that person.

Jesus wants us to go beyond the laziness and injustice of judgment to see and experience the whole person. He wants us to access our capacity for empathy, patience, and understanding. Today is an invitation to see people for who they really are, not through the lens of self, not through the lens of our insecurities, but through the lens of acceptance.
Matthew Kelly