Ash Wednesday

     Today we begin the season of Lent, the Paschal Season of the Church year. For the next 40 days, we prepare once again for our annual celebration of the feasts of our Redemption through the death and resurrection of Jesus at Easter. As we begin the season of Lent, we really have…

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Tuesday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

  Sirach tells us when we come to serve the Lord, prepare ourselves for trials and testing. And gold is tested in the fire and those found acceptable in the furnace of humiliation. The words of Sirach fit well with Jesus’ journey with his disciples as we hear it in the Gospel. Jesus was setting…

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Monday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

  The words of Psalm 50 set the stage for today’s gospel miracle. “Call on me in the day of distress. I will free you and you shall honor me.” The details are clear. This poor father was desperate for a cure, something to help his poor son. So, he brings him at last to…

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Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

  “Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them: Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy. At the end of today’s gospel passage, Jesus clearly states that in the end, he was calling his followers to “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” These are two tall orders.…

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Saturday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

  At the Steubenville youth conference, high school students gather together to reignite their faith. Most high school students who attend experience what many people call a “Jesus High,” when they are on fire with their faith and filled with the love of Jesus. On the last day of the conference, one of the speakers…

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Friday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

  Today’s first reading and psalm put a special focus on the poor. In his letter, James remarks, “Show no partiality” between the rich and the poor. He follows this statement with a rebuke for those who judge or deal harshly with the poor. The point he is clearly trying to convey is that the…

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Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

  In today’s Gospel, Jesus begins to give the apostles a glimpse of the Father’s will for him. He explains that he must suffer greatly, be killed, and rise after three days. This must have been very difficult for the apostles to hear. We see this when Peter responds by taking Jesus aside and rebuking…

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Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

  “As the crow flies” is an expression that denotes the shortest and most efficient path between two points. It is a route without wrong turns, dead ends, or detours. No traffic jams, checkpoints, or road rage. It is a direct path to one’s destination. In today’s first reading, Noah has spent forty days on…

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Memorial of Sts. Cyril, Monk, and Methodius, Bishop

  In our Gospel today, Jesus warns the disciples against false teachings using an analogy about leaven. The disciples are confused by his words, thinking that He is talking about food, which leads Jesus to ask, “Do you still not understand?” We are often told that the disciples were confused or didn’t understand where Jesus…

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Monday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

  In our first reading, we hear the story of Cain and Abel and the betrayal of brothers due to resentment. In the Gospel, we hear the Pharisees wanting a sign from Jesus, but he tells them “no sign will be given to this generation.” There are many things to say about these passages, but…

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Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

  There are many out there who believe the Catholic Church to be an institution for the mere purpose of laying down many, many rules. “Do this with your life, and do not do that.” Today’s readings point to a different reality, however. The first reading points out that “if you choose, you can keep…

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Saturday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

  Witness by Ariel Burger Seldom do you find a book that truly gives credence to its title, and yet Witness does. Ariel Burger is a Jewish Rabbi who mentored under Elie Wiesel, the writer, teacher, human rights activist, and Holocaust survivor. The author describes how he witnessed under the quiet and unassuming Wiesel whose…

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Memorial of St. Scholastica, virgin

  Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza Immaculee Ilibagiza was very young when the Rwandan Genocide broke out. She witnessed some of the worst evil that one could imagine. She survived because a local pastor took her and eight other women into hiding. She had to hide in a tight space for three months. She…

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Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

  Life of Pi by Yann Martel Very seldom is it that a book pulls a reader in and challenges their perception. This one does. Life of Pi is a novel written with deep philosophy. Pi is the main character. His family owns and operates a zoo in India. Pi grows up with a love…

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Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

  A Refutation of Moral Relativism by Peter Kreef We live in a time where objective truth is not recognized, and time-honored values are usurped by individual autonomy. In other words, we live in a time where too many people want to be their own gods without any rules or responsibilities. This book here was…

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Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

  The Spirit of the Liturgy by Joseph Ratzinger This is one book of spirituality I cannot hesitate to share. Joseph Ratzinger is known most famously as Pope Benedict XVI. He came to prominence as a young theologian at the Second Vatican Council. He went on to serve as an acclaimed theology professor, and then…

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Memorial of St. Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs

  The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch Few books have the power to make sense of life, and yet this book does exactly that. Dr. Randy Pausch was a young, gifted professor who taught at Carnegie Mellon University. He made a name for himself working in computer programming and research. He had quite a talent…

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Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

  Forward: As always, writing about faith brings with it a unique challenge. How can I as a writer bring you a perspective on the faith that you haven’t heard already? How can I prepare reflections that will simultaneously aid your faith and inform you? So, this week, I’m doing something different. I will write…

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Saturday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

  In today’s Gospel, Jesus sees the vast crowd that is looking for him and waiting for him, and he feels compassion for them. And he does something for them out of his compassion for them. First of all, this tells us how God feels about us, especially when we feel lost, confused, and far…

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Friday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

  In today’s Gospel, Mark recounts the events in Herod’s court that led to the execution of John the Baptist. Matthew also recounts the same episode in his Gospel. However, Mark includes an interesting little tidbit that Matthew omits, but that we should take a deeper look at. Mark writes that Herod was afraid of…

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Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

  Today is the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. The Law of God commands that the firstborn son must be taken to the temple and offered to God, and so in obedience, Joseph and Mary do this with Jesus. It is interesting to consider that since Jesus is God Incarnate, before his Incarnation,…

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Wednesday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

  When the Holy Family returned from Egypt after the death of Herod, they left Egypt and settled in the town of Nazareth. So, Jesus grew up in that town. In today’s Gospel, Jesus returns to his hometown after having spent some time in his public ministry. Since Jesus grew up there, the people of…

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Memorial of St. John Bosco, priest

  In today’s Gospel passage, we are presented with two miracles. At the beginning of the passage, Jesus is approached by a man named Jairus, who is a synagogue official and whose daughter is ill. Jairus asks Jesus to heal his daughter and Jesus agrees to accompany him back to the home. When they arrive,…

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Monday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

  In today’s Gospel, passage Jesus travels to the land of the Gerasenes, and encounters a man who has been possessed by evil spirits. This man howls and screams every day and gashes himself with rocks, etc. His neighbors have tried to restrain him, but even chains cannot hold him. He just breaks free. So…

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Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

  In today’s Gospel passage, we see the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. In the first sentences, Jesus sits and his disciples come to him and he begins to teach them. In our culture we are used to people standing behind a podium when they address us, so we find it striking that…

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Memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Doctor of the Church

  Mission Accomplished Today, in the opening prayer, we ask God to grant “that we may understand what he (St. Thomas Aquinas) taught and imitate what he accomplished.” Whoa. Really? He wrote about 60 works. One of them contains about 3,100 articles (the Summa Theologiae or “Summary of Theology”). Through his writing, teaching, and preaching,…

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Friday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

  Mysterium “…[H]e spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it” (Mk 4:33). There was a priest-monk among our community who would love to talk with guests, especially those who had never been to the Abbey or for whom monastic life was a mystery (surprisingly a lot of people). They were…

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Memorial of Sts. Timothy and Titus, bishops

  The Monastic Habit “So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord…” (2 Tm 1:8a) I admit, I have hesitated to share my faith in Christ—with strangers, family, friends, and now my classmates. Yet now that I am a monk and wear the monastic habit, it’s harder to hide my faith. But…

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Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, Apostle

  Whose Horse? Have you noticed that many paintings and icons of the Conversion of St. Paul depict the murderous man with a horse? Caravaggio did two paintings of the subject around 1601. Both include a horse amid dramatic lighting and emotive figures. In traditional and modern icons, a horse is very often seen standing…

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Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children

  The Heart of the Matter Today is a day of prayer for unborn children. God intended children to be born in love—real, sacrificial, unifying love. But when that real love is missing, misguided, or twisted, children are often conceived but not born into loving situations. It is sad to see a child abandoned, unloved,…

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Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

  A Great Light “The people…have seen a great light.” Isaiah 9:1 What does this mean to us today? We hear it in church; we read it in our Bibles or daily devotionals. But what does it mean? This ancient prophecy by Isaiah meant one thing to the people who heard it or read it…

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Memorial of St. Agnes, virgin & martyr

  “When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, ‘he is out of his mind.’” (Mark 3:21) The response of the crowd in today’s Gospel with the tone of the first reading and the psalm could not be more different with the reaction of Jesus’ relatives. The first…

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Friday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

  “Brother and sisters: Now our high priest has obtained so much more excellent a ministry as he is mediator of a better covenant, enacted on better promises” (Hebrews 8:6). This new covenant, given to us by the Son, is better because the because of what it brings about and how it is brought about.…

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Thursday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

  In today’s Gospel, we see the great desire of the people to seek out Jesus. They came from far away just to see him and touch him so that they may be healed. At that time, the people and even Jesus—for he was worried about being crushed by the crowd—were limited by humanity. But…

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Wednesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

  In today’s Gospel, Jesus poses a question to the Pharisees that I found to be very profound. He says, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” This is profound to me because it is easy to see the good…

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Tuesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

  “Brothers and sisters: God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love you have demonstrated for his name by having served and continuing to serve the holy ones” (Hebrews 6:10). In today’s reading from Hebrews, we see that God looks upon all we have done and are doing and remembers…

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Monday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

  “Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” Oftentimes, we are called to do what we at first do not want to do or are maybe just too scared to do. At the…

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Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

  In today’s readings, we see how God acts in our lives; he calls us and then exceeds our expectations. Our God is not a God who is distant, but rather a God who enters into our lives and brings us closer to Himself, and then raises us up to become more than we could…

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Saturday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

  Often, cradle Catholics, usually women, will come to me and admit that they do not feel that sinful. The sentiment is sincere, and it is not that they do not sin, but rather that they feel somehow their conversion was minimal. Having never overcome some grave sin or falling away, can they experience the…

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