Lenten Resources

  Hear O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord you God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Take to heart these words… This is the beginning of the great Shema – a profound statement of faith of the…

  We often speak of the ups and downs of life – the peaks and the valleys. Peak experiences carry real power. After such a special moment, it’s easy to be ‘in the clouds’ on ‘cloud nine.’ A special moment stays with us for some time. We might experience that after a very inspirational retreat.…

  Jesus is in a foreign land (the north of Israel). A Canaanite woman approaches him. She had clearly heard of Jesus and the power he demonstrated in healing many in Israel. Jesus seems to put her off and the disciples want to get rid of her. But she persisted, strongly. Some commentators even see…

  Miriam and Aaron felt excluded and somewhat jealous of Moses, so they “grumbled” against him. It is safe to safe that jealousy in any circumstance can often lead to trouble. Resentments make for grumbling and gossip. All of this can result in a kind of blindness. It is clear that Moses had a unique…

  Continuing the theme of God providing, we have Matthew’s account of the feeding of the large crowd that had been following him. Once again, we hear that “his heart was moved with pity,” and he was clearly motivated by his compassion and desire to provide for their needs. Jesus’s feeding the crowd is striking…

  For the last several weeks we have been hearing a familiar theme over and over. When Jesus saw the vast crowds, who had followed him — when he saw all those people, he was “moved with pity, for they were like sheep without a shepherd.” First, he began to teach them; then he also…

  For King and Kingdom Today, the Church remembers and celebrates a great soldier-saint, St. Ignatius of Loyola, who died on this day in 1556. He was born in Loyola, Castile (modern-day Spain), and died in Rome, where he was still serving as the general superior of the religious order he founded, the Society of…

  Checking Our Calendars We Catholics have a liturgical calendar. We have days of celebration called memorials, feasts, and solemnities on which we remember a saint, a sacred event, or an aspect of our faith. We also have seasons of particular themes that encourage penance or jubilance, and special rites within a single liturgy for…

  Friends of Jesus Today is somewhat of a new Memorial. It used to be just the Memorial of St. Martha. Martha’s sister and brother, Mary and Lazarus, have been included in today’s commemoration. Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, “considering the important evangelical witness they offered in welcoming the Lord Jesus into their home, in…

  With Unveiled Faces Our God is holy. He is so holy that Moses’ face would become radiant while he spoke with Him. It is as if God’s holiness was reflected on Moses’ face. His face would become so radiant that Aaron and the people were afraid to get close to him. Moses would have…

  Secrets Revealed We do not like secrets to be kept from us. We itch to know. And so do Moses and the Israelite people. (1) What does God look like? (2) Is God with us? (3) What kind of a god is the LORD? (1) The people are banned from going up the mountain…

  Our Christian Inheritance Today, we honor the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saints Joachim and Anne. We know their names only through Christian tradition, which has been passed down to us. We honor them because we honor Mary, their daughter, who was conceived without sin (the dogma of the Immaculate Conception). And we…

Signs of a Prophet We all have the need to eat and drink. Food and drink nourish us physically, yes, but they also nourish our spirit, especially when sharing a meal. We are often spiritually satisfied after a good meal taken in good company. In a similar way, we all need the Eucharist, the consecrated…

  The parable in today’s reading is really one of my personal favorites among all the parables. A master goes out and plants good wheat with his servants. An enemy comes along and plants many weeds. As the wheat grows, so also do the weeds. We hear again an allusion to our merciful God who…

  Here again, we read the passage in Exodus where God gave the Ten Commandments to the Jews at Mt. Sinai. God is a great lawgiver who institutes laws that are right and just. Our human laws draw their wisdom and inspiration from God’s divine laws. Human laws can become run down and lose their…

  Mary Magdalene is called the Apostle to the Apostles. She ran to tell Peter and the other apostle that someone had taken Jesus’ body. Then she later encountered two angels and Jesus Himself who had risen from the dead. She then went to the Apostles again, this time to tell them Jesus indeed had…

  Today’s first reading is used every year in the Easter Vigil. Exodus 14-15 tells of how the Lord led the Jews through the Red Sea to new freedom. The Lord set the people free. How amazing it is! With this victory, the Jews could now call themselves a free people. Moses proclaimed that the…

  Jesus is asked, or demanded, to give a sign. Jesus offers the scribes and the teachers nothing less than the Sign of Jonah. Jonah, or Jonas, preached repentance to the city of Nineveh. He called the people of that city to repent of their shameful ways and to come to authentic conversion. Jonah himself…

  Foreword: There is always a good time to honor a spiritual hero or role model who has influenced our spiritual journey. One person who I often turn to is Thomas Merton. He is considered one of the greatest Christian writers of the 20th century. His amazing story and mystique have grasped the attention of…

  Reflect on these words in the Gospel today, “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom I delight.” The Father says these words to Jesus. Now imagine these words being spoken to you. We must see God as a father who loves us deeply. Our experience of God the Father is…

  In one way or another, we have had moments where we know without a doubt God has worked in our lives; God stepped in and helped us in a moment of crisis. I imagine you can remember this moment down to how you felt before and afterward, what it did for you, and how…

  It might seem hard always to believe it, but God is present to us in the difficult moments of life. We hear Jesus say to us today, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest,” but we may not experience that rest; life continues in its…

  We all like having a clear path. We like knowing yes or no, this way or that way, right or wrong. Certainty is a human desire that we try to fulfill, and when that certainty is thwarted, we often react negatively. This is true in human affairs and affairs of faith. To accomplish this…

  Jesus continues, from yesterday, his harsh and brutal truths in today’s Gospel. Here Jesus rebukes the cities and peoples who have witnessed his great miracles and are left unchanged, and they refuse to repent of their sins. He says of them that Sodom, a city so corrupt that God’s wrath destroyed it, would be…

  We are used to hearing Jesus speak harsh and brutal truths towards his day’s religious and political establishment. We are not always used to, or we purposefully gloss over, the harsh and challenging truths directed to us. Today we have such a time. It is not easy to hear these words, “I have come…

  “Jesus…began to send them out two by two…and…He instructed them to take nothing for the journey.” Each Christian is called to spread the Gospel in their unique way. Each of us has particular passions, skills, life experiences, and encounters with God that give life to that message. However, many people feel inadequate to the…

  When Jesus spoke to his disciples, one of the most phrases he repeated most was this simple phrase: “Do not be afraid.” No matter who we are, no matter what our age, or circumstances we feel the power of those words. Fear can take on so many forms coming out of the past or…

  “People on the move” might be a possible theme for the two readings of today’s liturgy. Social anthropologists have documented the migration of peoples around the world throughout history but surely the most important from our perspective is the Old Testament migration of God’s people to and from Egypt. The powerful Joseph story reaches…

  Some people enjoy crossword puzzles and brain-twisters and are very good at them. Some of us like an occasional crossword puzzle but usually have to cheat when the right word just doesn’t come. It’s always amazing to me that someone can create the puzzle with all the interlocking answers (or pieces) and always with…

  We’ve all heard the saying, “what goes around, comes around!” What a powerful example we have of that in today’s readings. The brothers of Joseph had thrown him into an empty cistern and then sold him into Egyptian slavery. Now they come starving to Egypt and had to bow down and beg in front…

  Our first reading today again coming from Genesis is downright strange. What can we get out of this story in which Jacob (once he has managed to get his wives, his flocks, and all his possessions across the fording place) stays behind and has a wrestling match all night long with a stranger, namely,…

  Storytelling seems to be a special skill. We’ve all heard a good storyteller who can capture our attention with a story that is colorful, short, and to the point. Our readings for today are filled with gripping stories. The first story coming from the Book of Genesis (a treasure chest of Biblical stories!) presents…

  It’s a safe bet to say that we can all remember a very special Fourth of July celebration at some time in our life. It may have been our first experience of fireworks, or a hot July afternoon eating watermelon under a shade tree, or a Fourth of July parade around the square of…

  We identify with the very modern seeming St. Thomas. He is the scientific, skeptical man of our age. The famous meeting of the doubter and the Risen Christ is burned into our memory. Notice, though, that a doubter does not start from doubt but from faith wounded. Have you ever noticed that the most…

  Typology is a form of biblical interpretation. You look back into the Old Testament and find a type, a symbolic person or event which prefigure fulfillment in Christ (the antitype). Today we have one of the preeminent types for Christ: the Sacrifice of Isaac. Isaac is the beloved son, the son of the covenant.…

  Our two readings speak of expulsions: that of Hagar and Jesus. From a modern Christian point of view, the former case seems at one and the same time unjust and messy in how it came to this point. Suffice it to say that there was a lot of desperation, jealousy, and regret involved in…

  Today the liturgy gives special witness to the confession of Peter on which our faith is built: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” It is of great interest that the passage from Acts relates that Peter is arrested as the Passover begins. Unlike the Jews who participate in the Feast…

  It never seems just to punish an entire group for the faults of a few. It is not fair to the innocent, and likewise, it often does not send the right message to the offenders, for whom hopefully the intent is amendment. In a parish, there are times where a priest must correct behavior,…