Lenten Resources

  A plea for mercy. A cry for pity. For strength. In powerfully emotional words, the passage from Jeremiah tells the story of a people deeply wounded, even overwhelmed. It is clearly enough for the people to wonder if God has indeed abandoned them. They are pleading with God to remember the covenant of old.…

  Things take time. Growth. Change. Progress. Insight. Understanding. All of these are not “fast food” type items. It is easy to see this in nature. Seeds planted in spring grow over a span of weeks and produce a harvest, provided they are nourished with sun and water in good balance. Small saplings planted 15…

    The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed a pearl of great price, a net thrown into the sea that catches many fish, a treasure hidden in a field. So what is the Kingdom of Heaven like? Really. Jesus in the Gospel selections for recent days – Sundays and weekdays – has…

  St. James is one of my favorite saints and is my favorite apostle. The parish I grew up in was St. James Church in Washington, Iowa. It also has a parochial school, St. James Elementary. I went to school there for all my elementary education. Needless to say, I’ve been friends with St. James…

  “Blessed are they who have kept the word with a generous heart and yield a harvest through perseverance.” Luke 8:15 It is worth asking how one is supposed to keep a generous heart to then yield an abundant harvest. Conventional wisdom holds that you only get ahead by keeping the best things for yourself.…

  “You have revealed to little ones the mystery of the Kingdom” (MT 11:25) Jesus praises God for revealing His secrets to children, to those who are little. Children start life without preconceived notions and prejudices so they often are more open to receiving God’s graces. We can’t stay young forever, so we need to…

  Mary Magdalene shared a strong bond with Jesus. He inspired her through His preaching and example. Her history is often misconstrued. She has often been referred to as being a prostitute, although this is never stated specifically in the Gospels. It seems to be a grave injustice that Mary Magdalene has been branded in…

  In the Prologue of his Rule, St. Benedict wrote that God gives His children time to turn away from their sins. St. Benedict quotes the Gospel of John, saying, “run while you have the light of life.” He adds the word “run” when the Gospel of John used the word walk. Why? St. Benedict…

  “What have I done to you, or in what have I offended you?” (Micah 6.6) Whether you are young or old, you will come to find that, sometimes, life just doesn’t make sense. Events or circumstances happen that seem unfair and unjust. We wonder why God is allowing these things to happen at all.…

    Today’s Gospel reading is one of my favorites. Jesus tells the parable of the wheat that was infested with weeds. An “enemy” comes and plants weeds in the soil before the wheat could grow. The farmer comes later and finds that weeds have grown in the wheat. This harms the crop, but it…

  In the alleluia verse, we hear this morning, “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” Jesus loves us very much and he wants us to come closer to him. Throughout the week in the entrance antiphon for mass we have been hearing, “As for…

  “My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord; I know them, and they follow me.” People nowadays think that talking about death is a taboo and that if we ignore this subject, then we will live forever, but as St. Benedict says in his Rule, “Keep death daily before your eyes. The life that…

  Today is one of my favorite Marian Feast Days, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Our Lady appeared to St. Simeon Stock and gave him the brown scapular. “According to Pope John XXII, the Blessed Virgin gave him the following message in a vision related to those who wear the Brown Scapular: ‘I, the Mother…

  In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus say, “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, you have revealed them to the childlike.” What does Jesus mean here? It is very simple. People who think they know God, or…

  I don’t know about you, but sometimes it can feel like that the walls are closing in around me. There are times when I just want to give up and run. But there is one thing that gives me hope, and that is faith. In the first reading today, God tells Isaiah to tell…

  Today in the Gospel, we hear these troubling words from Jesus, “do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword.” If you think the world has gone topsy-turvy today, just imagine the disciples’ reaction when they heard this! What does…

    In today’s Gospel, we hear the parable of the sower, and one verse caught my attention, “The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word, and it bears no fruit.” If we look at the pandemic and civil…

  Today we celebrate the life and legacy of St. Benedict, the spiritual father of Benedictines, and the patron saint of Europe. Two documents have come down to us about this holy man from Italy who lived in the late 5th and early 6th century: His Rule for monks and nuns, which lays down the…

  Foreword: Please join me this week on a journey, as we follow the Church’s readings through the Book of Hosea, an ancient prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel. I think you and I both will discover that the life and message of Hosea are still relevant and needed today. Reading Hosea can help…

  Foreword: Please join me this week on a journey, as we follow the Church’s readings through the Book of Hosea, an ancient prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel. I think you and I both will discover that the life and message of Hosea are still relevant and needed today. Reading Hosea can help…

  Foreword: Please join me this week on a journey, as we follow the Church’s readings through the Book of Hosea, an ancient prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel. I think you and I both will discover that the life and message of Hosea are still relevant and needed today. Reading Hosea can help…

  Foreword: Please join me this week on a journey, as we follow the Church’s readings through the Book of Hosea, an ancient prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel. I think you and I both will discover that the life and message of Hosea are still relevant and needed today. Reading Hosea can help…

  Foreword: Please join me this week on a journey, as we follow the Church’s readings through the Book of Hosea, an ancient prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel. I think you and I both will discover that the life and message of Hosea is still relevant and needed today. Reading Hosea can help…

    Foreword: Please join me this week on a journey, as we follow the Church’s readings through the Book of Hosea, an ancient prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel. I think you and I both will discover that the life and message of Hosea are still relevant and needed today. Reading Hosea can…

  Today is Independence Day (for those of you who receive this message in the United States)! What a wonderful day to give thanks for the blessings we have. These are times of great social upheaval and uncertainty. However, we can look to Scripture to gain guidance as to how to respond. We have a…

  I used to watch a lot of episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. In one episode an innocent man was accused of murder, and a priest was attempting to show the investigators he was innocent. At one point Gil Grissom, the main character, doubts the direction of the investigation. Another investigator mentions how “doubting…

  Amos faces the wrath of people who are unwilling to listen to the truth, these being Amaziah and King Jeroboam. Amos tells them the truth about what will befall Israel, and they do not listen. Truth is something that people take in small doses, but don’t want to have in full. Amos courageously perseveres…

  I can never figure out, for the life of me, why the demons requested being sent into the swine. They know that Jesus is the Son of God and that He can defeat them. Why do they ask for the swine? Maybe being sent to the pigs was a step above being sent back…

  We read from the prophet Amos how God favored the people of Israel, and they did not return God’s love.           Do two walk together           unless they have agreed?           Does a lion roar in the forest        …

  Now we have the celebration of the two greatest Christian apostles. These two men, despite their weaknesses and shortcomings, helped to lay the foundation that the Church was built upon. It is funny to note that Peter and Paul didn’t seem to get along while they were alive. St. Paul even challenged Peter when…

    After reading today’s selected passages, I thought about the promises God makes and how they are fulfilled. God has promised us His love for all ages. We tend to make promises to God. We also tend to break or not honor those promises. God’s promises toward us are not dependent on our success…

  As we finish this week or reflecting upon our call to fearlessness and proclamation, we would benefit from recognizing that we, at times, must be the recipient of the message we proclaim. In today’s Gospel, we are presented by the surprising story of the Centurion and the power of his faith. It is remarkable…

  Our first reading today is a sad story. It is the recounting of the destruction of the Temple and the Babylonian exile. Along with this story, I wish to comment on the difference between punishment and penance. When we fail to live up to the expectations placed on us, like the ones we have…

  Shifting gears today, let us briefly examine this often-heard Gospel passage, “Not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” We might be tempted, as many are, to believe that by merely accepting or saying the name of Jesus into our lives ensures our salvation and entrance into the kingdom, but,…

  “In the spirit and power of Elijah, John will go before the Lord to prepare a people worthy of him.” This antiphon, taken from Lauds for today’s feast, beautifully captures the entire theme of this week, to go before the Lord to prepare a people worthy of Jesus Christ. We have been reflecting on…

  Continuing our journey toward fearless proclamation of the truth, we hear in today’s Gospel a very familiar phrase known as the Golden Rule, “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.” Yesterday, Jesus warned us against hypocritical judgment through self-examination, and today he warns us of the same thing, but by…

  In yesterday’s reflection, the twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time, we reflected on the need to fear no one and to boldly proclaim the truth. Today, we continue along that same path. For any journey to begin, one must, as you would expect, start at the beginning. This journey’s beginning is the self. Jesus warns…

    “Fear no one.” That’s a bold statement of Christ, fear no one. In life, we are confronted by many things and many people who challenge this statement, fear no one. I imagine we have all experienced that fear. It may be having to tell a parent you broke mom’s favorite vase; or that…

  Foreword: During Ordinary Time, the entrance and communion antiphons of the Sunday liturgy are repeated throughout the week. In this way, the themes developed at the Sunday mass are enriched and expanded as they interact with the different readings found on each day of the following week in much the same way that a…

  Foreword: During Ordinary Time, the entrance and communion antiphons of the Sunday liturgy are repeated throughout the week. In this way, the themes developed at the Sunday mass are enriched and expanded as they interact with the different readings found on each day of the following week in much the same way that a…