Wednesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Wednesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Be aware of what it is that God is asking you to do for Him.  Not always an easy task, but if we ask for the grace, God can help us to have a heart, open to what His desires for us are. 

King Belshazzar was not paying attention to what God wanted as he ruled his kingdom.  He even uses vessels that were supposed to be used for sacred ceremonies at the Temple for common eating and drinking at a party.  His kingdom is divided among his enemies.

The Gospel tells us to trust that the Holy Spirit will give us the words at the proper time.  Let us keep our hearts open.  God will help us.

Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Kings, kingdoms, temples, buildings, everything done by human hands and human ingenuity, will eventually fade away.  It will become nothing more than dust.  One thing remains: God.  It is He who we should focus on and it is on He who we should focus our praises towards.  As today's responsorial psalm says, "Give glory and eternal praise to him".  As we wrap up this liturgical year, may all our praises be to our God alone.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

Every year the last Sunday of Ordinary time, in fact the last Sunday of the entire liturgical year, is the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe; or simply called, Christ the King. We are literally saying that we have a good and merciful God who came to earth just like one of us to die for our sins who is our supreme ruler in Heaven and Earth and all of creation. So, what exactly does that mean?

Part of coming to know what that means involves understanding that if there is a king, then there must also be a kingdom. We call Christ the King of the Universe, so literally all of the universe is His kingdom. But most specifically, we want to get into His Kingdom in Heaven. That means coming to know Him better and striving to be with Him for eternity.

I'm sure many of you have at least heard of a series of books called the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. A central character in each of the seven books is a lion named Aslan. As readers get more into the books, we find that Aslan is really a symbol for Christ. We see the lion at creation of Narnia itself, we see him at the end of creation, we see him appear at the darkest hour of the other main characters and impart wisdom and encourage virtues. He even breaths on them as Christ does for his Apostles to give them strength and courage and sacrifices himself for the sake of others. Aslan is clearly meant to symbolize Christ as King as well. Lewis chose to portray him as the “king of beasts” in his books. He is described as the son of the king over the sea and as the one true king of Narnia.

Some of the other main characters of the books are children from our world who go to this mythical land. At the end of most of the books, they have to return to our world. This return is always met with a mix of happiness and sadness: happy that the bad guys have been vanquished and all is well for Narnia, but sad that they must leave that land behind. They especially hate to leave Aslan behind. In one of the books, the children have an opportunity to enter Aslan's own country over the sea. They find out from Aslan that they cannot enter now, but there is a way to enter his country from their land. He says he will be telling them how to get there. When he tells them that they must leave now for their own world, they are sad and tell him that it is because they will never see him in their own world. “But you shall meet me, dear one” Aslan says. “Are – are you there too, Sir?” asks one of the children. “I am. But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This is the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.” Though this is from a children's novel, I would hope that all of us, adults and children, can apply this to our own faith life. We hear about Jesus in the Bible and from what people have told us. Maybe we have read books like the Narnia books that show us symbols of Him. But we are being called to know Him better in our real relationship with Him. This means taking time for prayer and spending time talking with Him and discerning what He wants us to do. This is our opportunity to enter into His own land; into His kingdom.

Our readings today speak about how we are to trust in our King in Heaven and come to know Him better. The first reading from 2 Samuel talks about King David's anointing as the king of Israel. The various tribes of Israel come together to choose him as their king. They talk about how he did great things when he was working as a servant under King Saul and how God himself chose him to be the shepherd and commander of Israel. This is not directly about Jesus, since it is clearly before the time of Jesus, but since Jesus is considered the son of David and is the fulfillment of the prophecy that says a son of David will sit on the throne forever, we are still talking about Christ the King. Christ's purpose is to watch over the people of Israel. That includes us, thanks to our Baptism through Christ.

The Responsorial Psalm speaks to where we hope to go as we get to know Jesus. “Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord”. This psalm can have several meanings. It was first written as song that the Israelites would sing as they entered the Temple in Jerusalem to pray. We Christians sometimes use it to describe us going to Church to worship. But both the Temple and the Church are earthly symbols of Heaven. So we are truly singing about going to Heaven; the Kingdom of Christ.

St. Paul's letter to the Colossians doesn't say anything about kings, but it does talk about who Christ is. The Apostle says, “All things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church.” St. Paul is making the profession of faith about who Christ is, because he wants his listeners to be working at being closer to this great person. And after an introduction like that, why wouldn't we want to know Him?

The Gospel caps all this off by showing us why we call Christ our King and letting us know our rewards for following Him. At first the kingship is seen as a mockery. The soldiers and the one criminal all taunt Jesus to do something miraculous. But He doesn't, because He knows He must die first to fulfill what He came to do. The good criminal or thief gets what must happen. This may be the his first time meeting Jesus, but he is not just getting to know Jesus, like meeting someone on the street. He realizes who Jesus is and what He must do. He knows that Jesus truly is a king and must come into His kingdom. He asks to come with (“Jesus, remember me”), and because of his faith, Jesus obliges (“Today you will be with me”).

Christ is our King and we desire to be with Him in His Kingdom. Next week we will enter into the season of Advent and begin preparing for the birth of our Savior. Let us take this time, these next four weeks, to get to know Jesus better and ask for His grace so that we do not have to be without Him, but can be with Him is paradise for eternity.

Memorial of Saint Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr

Memorial of Saint Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr

St. Cecilia's Memorial is today.  She was a virgin martyr of the early Church.  There are stories about how she heard heavenly music at her wedding and how she later converted her husband to the faith and that they continued to minister to the poor and need in Rome until they were arrested and martyred.  However much of all that is true, the main point of it is that Cecilia wished to focus on what was holy.  She wished to focus on her relationship with Jesus most of all. 

The readings today call us to keep focused on what is holy as well.  1 Maccabees tells the story of the first Hanukah and how they rededicated the Temple after it had been defiled.  Jesus talks as well about keeping the Temple as a place of prayer.  This is all about keeping focused on what is holy.  We are called to keep focused on our relationship with God.  May St. Cecilia pray for us that we may receive the grace we need to do that.

Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Thursday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Memorial remind us that from early on, God was getting Mary ready to be the Mother of the Jesus Christ; to be the Mother of God.  God was with her from her Immaculate Conception as we will celebrate in December.  She was devoted to Him, as we can see is Sacred Scripture, both as a mother and as a child of God (still a child because she was created by God).  God gave her the graces necessary.

The readings today are not for this specific memorial today, but do talk about preparing for the end times.  1 Maccabees talks about wars and revolts.  The Gospel talks of Jerusalem being attacked and destroyed.  In both cases, we are being told we want to be close to God the Father.  We want to have a closer relationship with Him.  This will bring peace, Jesus tells us.  Punishment will be prevented.  Let us come to know Him better.

Wednesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time

Wednesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time

The context of the first reading today might seem familiar to some of you.  Two weekends ago we heard the beginning of this story, hearing what happened to the first four brothers.  Today we hear about what happened to the mother and the youngest son.  In hearing this story and meditating on it, we might have a hard time understanding why this family was willing to do this.  What would give a mother and her seven sons the courage to face such terrifying opposition?  It is important to remind ourselves that this was not the first time this family had considered how important their faith was.  They did not practice their faith when it was convenient for them: they lived it out faithfully and consistently. 

We are called to do the same thing with our Christian faith.  We do not just pray when bad things are going on and we happen to think of it.  We don't just go to Church (going to Mass or a service) just because we happened to get up on time and we have nothing else to do on Sunday.  Faith is not a passing thing, it should be a deliberate thing that is a consistent part of our lives.  By doing this, we already know that our relationship is important and we will have the grace and the courage necessary to stand up for our faith when others challenge us. 

This requires us to prepare ourselves and get ready.  We need to work at praying, building a relationship with Christ and being better Christians.  It seems to me to be part of what Jesus is getting at with the parable today.  We are told He is responding to those who thought the Kingdom was coming right away.  It will not, and just like the two servants who are rewarded for their hard work, we need to make preparations as well.  Don't worry, God will help us, we just need to put in a little effort ourselves.

Tuesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time

Tuesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time

When I was a kid at religious ed. classes, I remember talking about the early martyrs.  They had to choose between worshiping pagan gods or be put to death.  A classmate asked why they didn't just fake it: do the actions of the pagan worship to please the Romans, but keep believing in our real God and just pray to Him in secret.  God would know that we wanted to remain faithful to Him.  Our teacher explained that would actually be a problem because it could lead to scandal.  If others saw one of us worship a false god, they might think it is okay to do that since this faithful Catholic did it.  Or it might sadden them to see a Catholic doing it and that might lead them to just giving up.  Others wouldn't know you're just "faking it" and might get the wrong impression.  That is what Eleazar is worried about when his friends try to get him to fake out the authorities by substituting the pork with a more kosher meat.  Others may be scandalized. 

We need to be mindful of this in our modern day as well.  Our society tries to get us to go along with them in what is popular and feels good.  These feel good things don't always match with what the Church teaches us; what the Bible teaches us.  This includes Catholic thought on life, morality, social justice, marriage, politics, and others.  We might be tempted to just pretend that we go along with it in public (with our friends perhaps) just to fit in with the crowd, but still talk to God about how we believe Him and talk to our Church friends that we follow the Church.  But it doesn't work that way and we may lead others astray by doing such things.  Stay true to what we know God has taught us.  We may even help others to be closer to God through the courage we will show.

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

My Sunday Homily.  God is with us!

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

We all have those moments when we expect one thing and end up with another. It can happen with work, school, politics and many other situations: we think we have a promise of one thing, but then the truth comes out, we get something entirely different. Sometimes it is the fault of the other person or organization: maybe they were lying from the beginning or maybe other circumstances changed that prompted them to change their mind. Whatever happened, they told us one thing, and we ended up with another. It could be something as simple as being told to come in to work on a Saturday when we thought we had the weekend off, or being asked to cancel vacation plans for work. Not as major as other broken promises in the history of the world, but still I don't think that anyone appreciates being asked to work when you originally planned not to.

Sometimes things go differently than expected because of a mistake on our part. Maybe we misunderstand the instructions, or we are confused and don't ask enough questions to clarify, or maybe we weren't pay close enough attention. We think we understand something and we are willing to go with it, but only later we realize we got something wrong or jumped to the wrong conclusion. A great example of this that I have noticed is that many Christians have come to believe that if they are good Christians, if they work hard enough at following the Commandments, if they pray hard enough, if they love Jesus enough, then God will protect them and nothing bad will happen to them. Then, when of course something bad does happen to them in their life, they jump to the conclusion, “God must be mad at me. I must have done something bad. I must not have done enough good things. God is punishing me.” They may even go as far as thinking there is no good and gracious God.

That lie that God will never let anything bad happen to you probably comes from misunderstanding Scripture passages like we hear in the first reading today. God says through the prophet Malachi, “But for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.” This comes after saying that bad things will happen to all evildoers. In another place in the Gospels, Jesus says, “My yoke is easy and my burden light”. People seem to take these passages to mean that God will protect those who fear His name and prevent bad things from ever happening. In reality, we are being told that God will be with us and help us, even during the difficult times. Bad things will still happen to good people, but God will be there in our lives. That is the truth.

There is a popular phrase that people like to use. I've noticed that some people hate it while others really like it. The phrase is, God never gives you more than you can handle. I've noticed that whether you like it or dislike it seems to be based on how you interpret that phrase. In other words, what does it mean to say that God will never give you more than you can handle? If it means that God will never allow bad things to happen in your life or that God will never test you, then you're probably not going to like this phrase. One does not have to live life in the real world for very long to see that life as a Christian is full of challenges and hardships. Even as faithful Christians we are still going to experience sickness, stress, and persecution. Christians will still be jobless and poor, and will still experience death on earth. When I hear people complain about that phrase and say they don't like it, they indicate that it is because they themselves or someone they love has experienced a hardship like those I just mentioned.

There is another way of interpreting this phrase, however, that I think can give us some consolation during hard and difficult times. We can say that God doesn't give us more than we can handle because He is always there with us, even in the midst of the most difficult times of our lives. Granted, it might not always feel like God is right there when we are going through the darkest times of our lives. But if we search our hearts later on, I believe we can all find how God the Father was still there, encouraging us to continue forward; Christ the Son was there to give us courage as we carried our crosses; the Holy Spirit was there giving us the words to say at the right time.

Our Gospel today speaks to this. Jesus gives some very scary warnings about coming violence and persecutions. He warns His disciples not to let these things terrify them or to let themselves worry. He warns about the persecutions that the Romans will make against the Christians in the first several centuries of Christianity. Christians are still persecuted today when we consider that we live in a culture that so often goes against what our faith teaches us. Christ describes how people will be arrested and taken before kings to answer for what they did. Later we hear that even family members will turn loved ones in to authorities for believing in Christ. All this, Jesus tells us, will lead to giving testimony. This is a good thing, because it means that the story of Jesus is being told to others. Many of the early martyrs gave testimonies that resulted in many conversions, including the very guards who were holding them prisoner. How will we get these words to give such powerful testimonies? Jesus tells us we don't have to worry about what we will say: He says, “For I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.” The point is, God is going to be there with us and will give us the words we need.

God never promised that He would keep all bad things from happening to those who believe. He did, however, promise to be with us until the end. God does not make us take on hard times in our lives by ourselves. He is there. Accept the help. He will give us what we need. We may even help others to find their way as well.

Sorry for the delay on posts everyone.  Busy week last week and now I'm taking some vacation, but I plan to be back to my regular daily posts after that.  Please keep praying for me!

Fr. Joe

Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

I heard a stand-up comedian make a funny observation about human fears once. He pointed out that in a survey several years back, the question was asked of people what they were most afraid of. The number one answer was speaking in public. The number two answer was death. The comedian pointed out that for the average person, if you are at a funeral, you would rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy. I don’t know what that says about me, I have to speak in public regularly and I speak to families about death quite often. I should be a nervous wreck according to that statistic.

I am not trying to make light of people’s fears, especially people’s fear of death. I brought up that quote because I wanted to point out that many people are afraid of death. I’m not sure whether the statistic is still the same or whether the fear of death has gotten higher or lower in comparison to other fears, but it is most definitely still a great fear for many people. For some it seems to be a fear of their own death; their own mortality. For others there is a fear for those who have gone before us. Still others seem to have a combination of both. Perhaps that is why there are so many shows and movies concerning death. There are many horror films centered on psycho-killers. Other films focus on the un-dead, with zombies and vampires and mummies coming back from the grave. I’m no psychologist, but it certainly seems to me that these scary images of death stem from people’s fear of death. A person unsure of what may happen after death, may fear that there is no peace after death. The fascination of un-dead zombies and monsters in movies and TV is really a twisting of the Christian idea of life after death.

I personally love Shakespeare. He would often include veiled references to matters of the Christian faith in his plays. In the play Twelfth Night, one of the main characters is a countess by the name of Olivia. Olivia is in mourning after the death of her brother. Her attendants are worried about her because she has been mourning a long time. A man shows up at the house who is Olivia's court jester. The jester's job was to entertain his master, but also to be the one who speaks the truth to the master. The jester was also called, the fool, because only a fool would tell the whole truth, even bad news, to their boss.

Anyway, this fool has been traveling around, but without Olivia's permission. Such a thing could get a person locked up in chains or even killed. This jester seems to be very foolish indeed. When Olivia first sees the jester, she orders her men to “Take the fool away.” Thinking quickly on his feet, the jester starts arguing that the countess is actually more foolish than he is. Olivia brushes this off as ridiculous, and tries to have him taken away again. But the jester begs her, “My lady, give me a chance to prove you are a fool”. She says, “Prove it”. The jester asks her, “My lady, why are you mourning?” She looks incredulously at the jester, “Good fool, for my brother's death!” The jester simply says, “I think his soul is in hell, my lady.” Olivia responds angrily, “I know his soul is in heaven, fool!” The jester looks at her and says, “the more fool, my lady, to mourn for your brother's soul, being in heaven.” He then turns and tells her guards, “Take the fool away, gentlemen!”

The jester's quick wit helps pull Olivia out of the melancholy she was been feeling. His point is quite clear: he may be called a fool and do foolish things, but she is more foolish for mourning for so long when her faith told her that her brother was in heaven. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with mourning or being sad about the death of a loved one. There is a time to mourn and weep, and there will be plenty of times when that loved one will be missed. In the play, Olivia had taken the mourning to an unhealthy level. The jester was trying to pull her back to reality and to see a more positive side.

That positive side is what is being talked about in the first reading and the Gospel today. The first reading was from 2 Maccabees. 1 and 2 Maccabees both chronicle a Jewish revolt against an attempt by the Greeks to assimilate the Jews into Greek culture and religion. Here we learn about the mother with seven sons who were being forced to eat pork, a big “no no” in Jewish dietary laws. The gentile king thought he could force all Jews to comply by threatening them with torture and death. Imagine the surprise of the king and his attendants when they saw that these seven brothers and their mother would rather die than go against God's laws. They did this because they recognized that there was something more important than this life on earth: there is also eternal life in heaven. Consider some of the things that they said. One brother says, “The King of the world will raise us up to live again forever.” The forth is even more bold and says, “It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the hope God gives of being raised up by him; but for you, there will be no resurrection to life.” Not only did he reiterate what his brothers had said before, but he even added a parting shot to his persecutors. They knew they were going to heaven. They knew there was life after death.

In the Gospel, some Sadducees are attempting to trap Jesus with His words. They don't believe in a resurrection, but Jesus did, for obvious reasons. The Sadducees thought they had the perfect trap within Jewish law: if there is a resurrection, if there is life after death, then this woman in the story is legally married to all seven brothers! Why would God have a resurrection if it would result in such a sacrilegious situation? Jesus finally points out, they are missing the point. The important thing is not who is married to who or who has the most kids or who accomplished what on earth. The important thing is having life after death. The important thing is having eternal life with God.

My brothers and sisters, there is no reason to fear death, as long as we have hope for eternal life. Let us ask our Lord and Savior for the grace and the strength to gain such a wonderful and glorious end.

Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

As I was reflecting on the well known story of Zacchaeus this week, I began thinking about the

similarities between this story and the stories we hear of fans of musicians and actors and other famous people who will do whatever it takes to see or touch or get an autograph from these people. I'm talking about the people, usually teenagers, but sometimes other age groups as well, who will camp out all night to get tickets for a big concert or wait around long after the concert to see them leaving. Fans will wait all day to see their favorite actor come to a big premier and I would think you could include in this group those who will wait all day in some crazy costume for the first to buy tickets for a long anticipated sequel.

For centuries people have done what they must do to see those famous people they want to see. People have long endured big crowds, unbearable heat or cold, sat precariously in trees, and climbed the side of buildings just to see the rich and famous. So it is not all that surprising that we hear this story of Zacchaeus who so longs to see Jesus that he tries to make his way through crowds and then climbs up a tree (like a kid trying to see a parade or a baseball game) to get a better look.

Though I am comparing Zacchaeus to teens who go crazy waiting to see their favorite pop artist, I hardly think for a moment that our short, tax collecting friend is interested in seeing Jesus simply because He was probably the most famous rabbi at the time. Remember, he actually agrees to change his whole life around when he welcomes Jesus in and the crowd starts grumbling. I could be wrong, but I don't think that a rich tax collector would change his whole life around and turn from sin simply because a famous person was coming to his house. I love the Star Wars movies, but if Harrison Ford came to visit me, that alone would not be enough to convince me to stop sinning! Zacchaeus' interest in Jesus goes much deeper than that.

St. Augustine was a bishop in the 4^th and 5^th Centuries. He was a brilliant man and wrote many different theological works. In his autobiography, Confessions, he famously wrote, “Our hearts are restless until the rest in you, O Lord”. St. Augustine had experienced this first hand in his own life. He started out as a trouble maker as kid. As an adult, he tried out various religions and philosophies before finally accepting Catholicism. In reflecting on his life later on, he realized that his heart had always longed to be with God, but he didn't recognize it at first. He knew his heart longed for something, so he tried to fulfill it through various philosophies and religions. It wasn't until he found Jesus in the Catholic Church that his heart finally found rest.

All humans have experienced this longing to be with Jesus. Some get distracted along the way, but they eventually find their heart's desire in a relationship with Him. I believe that we are seeing an example of this in the story of Zacchaeus. No doubt, he thought his heart's desire was to have money. So accordingly, he worked hard as a chief tax collector to make as much as he could. Not surprisingly, that physical wealth wasn't enough to fulfill that longing. He needed something more.

Now Jesus is coming through the city of Jericho. We don't know how Zacchaeus first heard about Jesus or for how long he had been hoping to meet him. Perhaps he had heard people talk about His miracles or His teachings a few weeks before and had desired to meet Him since then. Maybe he had heard about Him months before then, but it wasn't until he heard that Jesus was passing through town that he wanted to see Him. Perhaps Zacchaeus had even heard Him speak somewhere else before, but he only desired to meet Him now. It is even possible that this tax collector hadn't even heard of Jesus until that day and that simply hearing about Him was all he needed to desire to see Him.

Whatever the circumstances or events leading up to this, all Zacchaeus knew was that he wanted to see Jesus, and so he famously climbs a sycamore tree to get a better look. We too, as St. Augustine writes, have a longing to be with Jesus; to look upon His face. What are we going to do so that we can be with Him? What obstacles might be blocking our view of the face of Jesus? Perhaps we feel too sinful, that we are unworthy. Perhaps we feel like we just don't know Him all that well and it is too hard to get to know Him better. We might feel like we are behind the big crowd that is already pressing in around Jesus. Maybe we feel too short in stature to see Him. How are we going to see Him? How are we going to climb that tree to get a better look?

Many times in Scripture, a tree becomes symbolic of the wood of the Cross of Jesus. Just as Zacchaeus comes to know Jesus by climbing a tree, so we can come to know Him better by going to the Cross by which we were all saved. We do this by prayer, by coming to the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. It might sound contradictory, but we can ask Jesus to help us come to know Him better. He will help us.

Once we do come to know Him better, what do after that? If this were some other famous person we would probably just go home and talk for a few days about that awesome night we met so and so and so off pictures and autographs. But then we would forget about it and life would simply go on as it had before. This is Jesus. Zacchaeus makes a vow to change his life around. He promises to give half of his possessions to the poor. He even promises to pay back anything he extorted from anyone four times over, which is probably going to be a lot since he is a rich tax collector. We know that this not just a song and dance to impress the Jesus or the crowd either because Jesus commends Him for what he is doing.

Jesus longs to be with us, just as we long to be with Him. May God bless us so that our hearts may be converted as Zacchaeus' was. May we come to be closer to His Son.

Solemnity of All Saints

Solemnity of All Saints

It has been a busy All Saints day for me and it isn't done yet.  I haven't had a chance to write anything as of yet, but here are a few thoughts that I'm including in my homily for today.

We have many different saints that we recognize in the Catholic Church.  They are named saints because the Church as examined their lives, and talked to people who have asked for their intercession, and looked at miracles attributed to them and we believe they are for sure in Heaven.  When we honor them on this day and on their respective feast days, we don't do it in order to laud their own talents and abilities as if they made it to Heaven under their own power.  Rather, we honor God who gave them the grace and blessings necessary to get there.  We also honor Him for giving us these saints so that we could use their lives as an example of how we are to live our own lives.  In short: all praise to God.

One last thought: God is not done making saints.  He didn't stop doing it in the middle ages or at the start of the 20th century or 21st century for that matter.  He has been working with all of us.  He worked with loved one who have gone before us.  May we all meet one day in the Kingdom of Heaven!