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GLIMPSE OF GOD FOR THE WEEK OF APRIL 26, 2026

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Last week, we reflected on the spiritual characteristics of Saint Francis and how we are all able to reflect His spirituality in, by and through our actions, attitudes, words and deeds. This week I am offering abbreviated daily reflections to enable you to see how you do reflect the gentle, loving, joyful, peace filled nature of Christ, as did Saint Francis and the Sisters of Saint Francis. As followers of Christ, and lovers of certain saints and their spirituality, I believe that this is God’s way to draw us nearer to Himself as we gain insight and knowledge of His chosen followers and their unique spiritual characteristics that shine a greater light on their God as they see and understand Him.

SUNDAY – “J” – JOYFUL - The feelings expressed or a causing of immense pleasure and happiness.

Are you a joyful person? What brings you joy? What takes away your joy? Joy is not a fleeting gift from God, but one that is planted with deep roots. It is up to us; we can choose to cultivate it or ignore it. We can be a joyful person despite the challenges that come our way, or we can allow them to make us bitter and unhappy. 

For today, take time to look at the various events, people, circumstances that bring or have brought you joy, as well as when you were the cause of joy for someone and how it made you feel and offer a prayer of gratitude.  

MONDAY – “U” - UNIQUE - Someone or something that is unlike anything or anyone else and incredibly special.

Do you see yourself as a unique individual? Do you recognize that you have been given extraordinary gifts and talents by God that make you who you are and the special person that you are? God sees you as unique, special and He calls you, His beloved. Can you allow yourself to be loved by God?

It is a gift to be different and not blend in with everyone. God has created you to be you and not anyone else. There will never be another you. There will never be another heart like yours, another spirit like yours another soul like yours. You are created as uniquely as God creates. Do you like who you are, or do you try to be someone else? Can you allow God to love you and show you how special and unique you are and that you are gift? 

For today, look in the mirror and begin to identify your uniqueness, your giftedness by God, what makes you special, intellectually, physically, or emotionally, what makes you stand out from the crowd, what people notice about you. Honor and reverence who you are and recognize that God created you and wants you to see how special you are to Him and all those in your life.  

TUESDAY – “B” – BOUNTIFUL - Giving generously, unselfishly openhanded.

We all have opportunities to give generously of our selves: by being present to another as we listen and words are not necessary, by offering our prayers to those who are seeking to feel God’s presence, by lending a hand to someone who is need, and by lifting up one who has fallen by our showing of compassion, mercy and understanding. For today, look at how bountiful you have been and how others have been bountiful in your life. Ask God for the grace to continue to extend yourself to those in need, be it spiritual, physical, or emotional and thank Him for those who He has sent to you when you needed them most and, in some cases didn’t realize it.  

WEDNESDAY – “I’ – INTUITIVE - Having the ability to understand things without any proof.

The prayer of Saint Francis can be a prayer of intuitiveness because it is in the prayer where we identify those areas that are “off”, hatred, doubt, despair, darkness, and we want to make right with God’s love, pardon, faith, hope. We want to make right what we spiritually intuit to be bringing us away from the Lord. We might not be able to identify the exact moments where we have fallen to hatred or how we have doubted God or the how or why we gave into despair, but we sense deep within that something is not right, and we want to change. Hatred, injury, doubt, despair, discord, darkness, sadness, can permeate our very being, but it is the desire to bring forth love, pardon, faith, hope, truth, light, joy, understanding, and consolation that enables us to act in a positive way toward others before the weakness of sin wins.

For today, slowly pray the Prayer of Saint Francis and pray for the grace to identify one aspect in your life that you want to change, or that needs healing or has been healed. 

THURSDAY – “L” – LOVING - Feeling or showing love or great care.

The Sisters have lived their life showing great love for all those that God has placed in their care. We all have the potential to be loving people, yet there are times when our love is overshadowed by hate, our compassion is overshadowed by rash and harsh judgment, and our mercy is overshadowed by bitterness. Yet in an instant, we can change and be loving and better people. We just need to ask God for His help and His grace. 

For today, ask for His grace to let go of those dispositions, attitudes, actions, judgments that make you unloving, and ask to be filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit that will make you become the best person that you can be, the person that God created you to be, and have the potential to become.

Your best self is a loving self a giving self, continue to share your gift of self with those whose best self might be overshadowed by self-doubt, sin, shame, or unnecessary guilt. 

FRIDAY – “E” – EFFUSIVE – Expressing a feeling of gratitude pleasure in a heartfelt matter.

The celebration of the Mass is an act of thanksgiving. We come together to give thanks and to celebrate as a community the great love of Jesus as He gives us His Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist. We are the Body of Christ. We are commissioned to be the hands, feet, voice, eyes, and ears of Christ in our families, our church, our neighborhoods, our community, our workplace, with those we know and the stranger, the outcast and the forgotten, the humble and the proud. We are all called to build the Kingdom of God here on earth. When we possess a spirit of gratitude, we can build the Kingdom without being restricted, where there are no walls only open spaces. 

For today, express your gratitude to those who need to hear it. If it is God, pray it, if it is to a family member, say it, but just don’t let it go. 

SATURDAY – “E” – ENDEARING – Inspiring love or affection and sharing it.

Do you inspire love or affection, or do you shy away from it?  God draws us to love; to be love and to share love, just not to hold onto love. 

For today, as you prepare for the weekend, think of how you have inspired love and how you have shared that love for God, others, and self. Remember to pray for those who have inspired love for the stranger by placing their lives in harm’s way; our military, police, fire, All these individuals give of themselves because they were inspired by the love and selfless actions of another. We might not be called to go out and minister to another who is carrying so great a cross, but the person sitting next to us at home, in the restaurant, on the train or bus, the next person that we welcome in our home, the stranger that we see walking  down the street, we can all give the selfless act of love by sending a prayer to God on their behalf, since only God knows their heart and the cross they carry, our prayer made  in and out of love can make their burden a little lighter. 

Glimpse of God for the week of April 19, 2026

The immeasurable treasure, the precious gems of the Sisters of Saint Francis.

As I begin this Glimpse, I want to take a moment to recognize the many graces and the giftedness of so many that the Church of Philadelphia has received, through the open hearts of many men and women who have answered the call to serve as Priests, Consecrated Religious and Permanent Deacons. My glimpse for this week comes from the Sisters of Saint Francis of Philadelphia who reside at the Assisi House and local convents, who will celebrate their Diamond, Golden and Silver Jubilees. No matter how you look at it or how long they have been professed, they are all gems and precious in the eyes of God and all those they encounter and serve. We consider all the Franciscan Sisters at Assisi House, as genuine gifts from God, friends in the Lord, our second family and those we hold near and dear and can call true friends. As I reflect on the Sisters at Assisi House, I am reminded of the prophet Sirach when he states “a faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure. Faithful friends are beyond price; no amount can balance their worth. Faithful friends are a lifesaving remedy; those who fear God finds. Those who fear God enjoy stable friendship, for as they are so will their neighbor be.” Sirach 6:14-17. At their age, whatever that is, you will not meet any stronger or faithful shelter in the Lord.

This Month, many Sisters of Saint Francis of Assisi of Philadelphia will celebrate, in an incredibly special way, the diamond, silver and golden jubilee.WOW!!! When you see them, you would think that they made their final profession when they were in kindergarten. Not only do they not look their age, whatever that is, but they are the youngest at heart women that I have ever met. Their hair may be white or gray but their smile, but their love for God and neighbor, their humor and joy, is vibrant, luminous and shines with great radiance. It is nowhere close to being just black or white. They see the kaleidoscope of life, people’s experiences, God’s presence and their vocation as a gift. The colors of the rainbow in the brightness of life and the Son shining after the storms of life pass by, the color of the pain and darkness of death, separation, sin, and injury, the gentle colors of consolation, support and encouragement, the bright colors of reconciliation, the permanent colors of peace, mercy, compassion and joy. They live the simplicity of Saint Francis by being authentic, genuine and real and with that, their reality shines brightly. It is a radiance that is welcoming and inviting and we are honored to call them friends.

The Sisters who are celebrating their Diamond, Golden and Silver jubilee are celebrating when they made their final profession. They professed the vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience, and in a way we all profess these same vows by the way we love, try to serve our God and each other, and remain true to ourselves, our vocation to be faithful and live up to our potential as God invites us to. The vow of poverty that the Sisters take means that they keep nothing for or to themselves, and that all goes to the community that they belong to. When we seek to live for God and others without possessing the best or the newest or the brightest of what the world has to offer and the devil tempts us to believe that we need, I believe that we too take a silent vow of poverty when we desire not to seek more of what we want than what we need. The vow of chastity they take as they are the bride of Christ and the church and not to the vocation of marriage. As God’s beloved sons and daughters and temples of the Holy Spirit, we too try to love ourselves by respecting, honoring and reverencing our bodies. To be chaste is to faithful to our God and the person that we are as His follower. Obedience is not about submission or a false sense of humility but rather a loving deference to the wisdom of another that will help one be conformed, transformed and reformed into a greater reflection of the Christ.    

To the Sisters at Assisi House and in local convents who are celebrating their Diamond Jubilee: Sr. Gertrude Carocci, Sr. Mary Anne Gallagher, Sr. Dolores Herbeck, Sr. Patricia Moore, and Sr. Dolores Sambucco, Sr. Sr. Kathleen Shadell, Sr. Marie Spellman, Sr. Theresa Ulshafer.  Those who are celebrating their Golden are Sr. Elizabeth DeWaele, Sr. Lydia Etter, Sr. Theresa Firenze, Sr. Anne Hall, Sr. Karen Pourby, Sr. Kathleen Radich, and Sr. Linda Sariego. Those who are celebrating their Silver jubilee are Sr. Mary Margaret Gannon and Sr. Theresa Lamkin.

We joyfully and prayerfully celebrate with all those men and women who recently responded, those who continue to discern God’s call, and those who continue to say Yes, every day. I imagine that when they looking in the face of life’s unexpected challenges and God’s surprises, they profess their personal Yes, as did Mary, every moment of every day just by their surrender, trust and openness.

As volunteers, when we see the Sisters they share their stories with us, their challenges, their wisdom and their prayers and they embrace our stories, our challenges, and offer us their prayers, support, and encouragement. Each of the Sisters, past and present have been a true blessing on this wonderful and blessed journey of true love, support, genuine friendships, deep lasting relationships, and joy. Thank you Sisters for continuing to allow us into your home, we are deeply blessed and grateful.

As I reflect on their jubilee and their vocation as Consecrated Religious, I am inspired, and in awe of these wonderful deep women of faith. These Sisters who are celebrating 70, 50 and 25 years as a Consecrated Religious, as well as every sister who has been there and has moved on to 70 plus years, as well as to the sisters who aren’t there yet.

I am also very grateful for the young men from Saint Charles Seminary of Philadelphia, that will be ordained to the priesthood in May, and for the men that will be ordained to serve Archdiocese of Philadelphia as permanent deacons in June.  All continue to shine as a true light, a ray of SonShine in the hands of their creator and the lives of His beloved children and creation.  All have said YES so long ago, and yet just moments ago as well. Their YES is a daily YES. They live out their YES to God by the life that they live, have lived, and hope to live that of a faithful service with a heart that remains open always ready to be transformed, conformed, and reformed to the heart of Jesus.

As men and women who have discerned God’s will with the grace of His Holy Spirit, they said YES with no treasure map to follow, no guarantee or refunds, no promises or exceptions as the world would ask or expect. Instead they put their trust in God’s wisdom and knowledge of their deepest desire and love for Him, their treasure map was and remains in the Sacraments of the Church, for it is in them they find the direction and path that they need to follow, their promise was eternal life and the guarantee was given to them by Jesus as He was nailed to the cross, and there are no exceptions, we are all included.  All who choose to follow Christ will inherit eternal life.

The Sisters have remained faithful followers despite and amidst any physical limitations, pain, discouragement, and disappointments. Amid it all they renew in their heart their YES to Christ as His beloved bride. All the Sisters are not only a Glimpse of God, but a clear picture of God and His wonderful all-encompassing love for all His children. They, like Saint Francis, exude the simplicity, humility and compassion that makes them truly God’s instruments of peace in a world torn by strife, discord, and division.

As we begin a new week, let us take a moment to thank God for all of those individuals; religious, secular and military, who have given us our freedom so that we can practice our religion, have given us religion so that we can pray for freedom, and who have united us as one under God, so that we will not be afraid to be a witness and a sign of  His presence through acts of justice, words of truth, extensions of peace, and signs of reconciliation. In next week’s glimpse I will share with you how we are called to live our daily life in the light of joy as we continue to discern God’s will, our vocation.