St. Agnes Mission Mirando

09/07/2026

09/05/2026

One of the most difficult things in life is correcting another person. Yes, there are people who seem always to be correcting others—but that type of person rarely has any lasting success. What the Lord God wants from us is to find ways to draw others to HIM, the Lord God, by the way of correction. That is a divine task.
The Gospel passage this Sunday is all about how to deal with a neighbor who has wronged us. But we can also look at this from the other side where we are the one wronging someone else. It works both ways. The challenge is: how to bring about reconciliation with a deep awareness of the truth of the situation. All of us must learn that we offend others at times, that we misjudge others at times, that we take advantage of others at times. If we can come to recognize our own brokenness and lack of love towards others, then we will find it much easier to deal with the brokenness and lack of love in others.
So our first challenge today is to accept that we are broken and need correction. Only within that context can we see God’s love. Then in God’s love we might be able to speak the truth to our own culture and to others in our lives.

09/05/2026

09/03/2026

08/29/2026

This Sunday’s Gospel tells us about the relationship of Jesus with His followers. Peter does not want Jesus to suffer. None of us wants others to suffer, for the most part. Yet a human life lived in a way only to avoid suffering is a wasted life. Instead, Jesus invites us to follow Him and to accept the suffering that come with that following.
Jesus tells us in strong words: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” Clearly it is not natural for us to want the cross or to follow someone who will lead us into suffering. Nevertheless, Jesus invites us to know what life really is by following Him.
If we follow the Lord, we will suffer. We will become like the Prophet Jeremiah and complain that following God makes us suffer. We will be like Saint Paul in recognizing that we must be transformed by the renewal of our minds. In the midst of all of this, the name of God can become like fire burning in our hearts and allowing us to rejoice in this life, even in the sufferings, because we are loved by God and know that in following Him, we are returning His love.