Daily Reflections
“Teach me your ways, O Lord.” Ps. 25.4 Theology is one of the greatest treasures of the Church, without question. You cannot love what you do not know. Remember, God wants to be known by us in His infinite love and mercy. The art of studying theology and knowing the faith more is like…
Continue Reading“To you, O Lord, I lift up my eyes.” Ps. 123. 1 As you read this week about the call to holiness and our own response to God’s loving initiative, it comes time to explore the role of all people in the Church with evangelizing. The word “evangelization” means the spreading or proclaiming of…
Continue Reading“In every age, O Lord, You have been our refuge.” Ps. 90. 1 Suppose someone asked you the question, “Are you holy?” How would you respond to this question? Would you be offended? Would you question them back? Would you offer a half-hearted answer saying that you hoped so? For me, this would be…
Continue Reading“In you, my God, I place my trust.” Ps. 91.2 A common pattern emerges in Salvation History, God initiates and we respond. God is always the one who begins in creation and the divine action, and humanity responds to it. This pattern has played out from time immemorial in Genesis, Exodus, the Prophets, to…
Continue Reading“I will raise up the cup of salvation.” Ps. 116. 13 To eat and drink with Jesus, our Lord, our Savior and our God, is to realize that we are not in our own world anymore. We walk and wine and dine where “angels have longed to tread.” I took a class recently on St.…
Continue ReadingIn the three short years of his ministry, Jesus had to contend with much controversy. How’s that for an understatement? Perhaps controversy reminds us that changing our minds and our deeply held attitudes does not happen easily or without a certain amount of personal discomfort. “My mind is made up, don’t confuse me with…
Continue ReadingEvery family has family stories. These are the stories that children love to hear over and over as the elders share their memories within the family circle. Perhaps the story of Mary crossing the Judean hills on a solo journey to visit and assist her cousin Elizabeth qualifies as one of those beloved family…
Continue ReadingThe figure of Bartimaeus the blind beggar in Mark’s Gospel today is powerful in the midst of weakness. It’s hard to imagine the helplessness and isolation of a beggar in ancient times compounded by blindness. Jesus did not shy away from the most desperate as he found them. Here there is the added dimension…
Continue ReadingThe Gospel of Mark is known to be the shortest, the first to be written Gospel, and perhaps the most blunt. Today’s reading from Mark is jarring, not so much in what is said, but in what is omitted. Jesus was leading a caravan of apostles and assorted friends as they approached Jerusalem with…
Continue Reading“If I had known then what I know now” is a common expression as we look back over the events and experiences of our lives. Some early choices and decisions might seem rather naïve or even misguided in the light of hard-won wisdom and valuable learning experiences. Today we can either choose to focus…
Continue ReadingThe story of the encounter between Jesus and the very self-assured young man in the Gospel today reminded me of a comment attributed to the American author Mark Twain about himself. He said that, as an 18-year-old, he thought his father was just about the dumbest man alive. And then when we got to…
Continue ReadingIt would seem that in today’s world, anything of importance must be superlative in some way, as in the biggest, the fastest, the deepest, the highest, the strongest, etc. Perhaps it’s part of our human nature to measure greatness according to size, and that often means trying to supersize everything around us from hamburgers…
Continue ReadingThe kingdom of God belongs to such as these. We regularly hear these phrases in the gospels. They often come as a conclusion to some particular sayings of Jesus. Much of Jesus’ teaching was intended to instruct the disciples in the ways of the kingdom: Often in the gospel, a child is held up…
Continue ReadingRemaining faithful to the breaking of the bread, let us live together in love. (Refrain of a song from the monks of St Meinrad) That seems to be the key: Remaining faithful. Today we have more instructions for living the way of the Lord. From James: do not complain about one another, that you…
Continue ReadingI tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me. Anyone who gives even a cup of water will be rewarded. Whoever welcomes a child, in the name of the Lord, welcomes the Lord. These words make following…
Continue ReadingWherever you are Lord, there is mercy, there is truth, and there is compassion. That states it pretty clearly. Today’s short gospel passage talks about being with the Lord, being in the circle of faith, or not being with the Lord. As was often the case, the disciples and their responses to situations provide…
Continue ReadingToday a teacher might start the day with, “Where did we leave before the break?” Today we return to “ordinary time” with readings from the Letter of St James, and back to Mark’s gospel chapter 9. We left off back in February before Ash Wednesday. Since then, we’ve had our annual revisiting of what…
Continue ReadingThis memorial was added to the calendar for the Monday after Pentecost at the direction of Pope Francis in 2018. As with all of the titles that honor the Blessed Virgin Mary, this one is not new. Pope St Paul VI in 1964, at the Vatican Council II promulgated the Blessed Virgin Mary as…
Continue ReadingToday we celebrate Pentecost: the 50th day of our Easter celebration, the conclusion of the Paschal Season, which goes all the way back to the beginning of Lent. This is the time when we reflect again on our redemption and what it all means and who we have become, that is, we are God’s…
Continue ReadingSt. Paul has arrived in Rome. During his final two years, he will have private lodgings (guarded by only one soldier), and he will be permitted to have visitors. But what about the communities he founded in Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae, and Thessalonica (to name a few)? What about Barnabas, Silas, Mark, Luke,…
Continue ReadingThe last few days have provided snapshots of St. Paul’s last missionary journey. He knew even before arriving in Jerusalem how things would end. We all knew. There was no self-glorification and no self-pity. He had worked too hard for things to end so pathetically. There was his conversion to Christianity and the pain…
Continue ReadingUnlike St. Matthias, who knew Jesus from his baptism to his Ascension, St. Paul had not been a disciple of Jesus. In his ignorance, he persecuted The Way until he experienced the kindness and charity of a fearful Ananias, who brought him into the Christian community at Damascus. Barnabas was entrusted with Paul’s initial…
Continue ReadingThe ministry of Jesus was primarily to the Jewish people. The apostles at first stayed close to Jerusalem to shore up the community of followers. It made sense to begin there, because the Jews believed there was only one God (monotheism). This faith tradition also awaited the coming of a Messiah. There was at…
Continue ReadingBefore his Ascension, Jesus commissioned those whom he had chosen to continue his ministry of spreading the Gospel message. But one who had been chosen, Judas Iscariot, betrayed Jesus. St. Peter assembled the Christian community in Jerusalem and, referring to Psalm 109:8, determined that someone should be chosen to replace Judas. What sort of…
Continue ReadingJesus built his Church upon St. Peter, the rock and cornerstone. He was the first Apostle to the Gentiles. However, the Church needed a firm foundation from which to evangelize, and St. Peter spent much time in and around Jerusalem teaching, preparing disciples for ministry, and fundraising for the missions. The Lord found another…
Continue ReadingThe ministry of Jesus began with humility. God became one like us, and he learned under the tutelage of his parents. His life’s work began at 30 years of age and spanned three years. His target market was the Jewish people, who already believed that there is only one God. Jesus looked for and…
Continue Reading“The Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have come to believe that I came from God.” (v.27) God loves us because we have accepted his Son, whom he sent into the world, the one sent to reveal God’s love for us. Our acceptance is put in terms of belief –…
Continue ReadingYou will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy. Pope St. Paul VI, in his exhortation on Joy, gave the Church a practical way to work at turning grief to joy. Here are his words at the end of his exhortation. …
Continue Reading“A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me.” Jean Corbon, in his book, “The Wellspring of Worship,” makes an interesting statement: “The silence of the resurrection is here more than ever the mystery of the kingdom…
Continue Reading“The Spirit of truth” … will declare to you the things that are coming.” Yes, and these things have come! But they are not “these things” but this “thing”, the reality, Christ! The Lectionary used at mass speaks of this reality: “’The purpose of the homily at Mass is that the spoken word of…
Continue Reading“It is better for you that I go…” …so that the Holy Spirit could come! This gift from the Father and the Son is indispensable in the face of a very secular and sometimes hostile culture. Because of Christ’s coming this “world is on trial. The Paraclete is the prosecuting attorney. He will prove…
Continue Reading“When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me.” Jesus tells us, in another place in St. John’s Gospel: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always.” As…
Continue Reading“I have told you this so that my own joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.” (v 11) Before this, Jesus said to his disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,…
Continue ReadingThe message that Jesus speaks to us today is difficult to hear. He speaks of the hatred for the Gospel that he experienced, and which put him on the cross. And he assures us that we will experience the same hatred. And he says to us “they will do these things because they do…
Continue ReadingToday we celebrate the feast of the Apostles Philip and James. Thanks to this we have a special Gospel passage for today. In this passage Philip tells Jesus, “show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Thanks to Philip, Jesus, in his response to Philip, brings some clarity to his relation…
Continue ReadingIn today’s gospel, when Jesus tells us “if you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,” it may at first seem to us that he is saying that his love is conditional, that it depends on our obedience. But he immediately follows this up by saying “just as I have kept my…
Continue ReadingToday we have an optional memorial in honor of St. Joseph the Worker. When I was serving as a priest in Kingston, Jamaica, we would transfer this memorial to May 23, which is Jamaica’s National Labour Day, celebrated on this date to honor the beginning of a Jamaican labor movement that led to Jamaica’s…
Continue ReadingIn today’s Gospel, Jesus says to us, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you.” This peace that Christ gives us is larger and stronger than the world and the peace that the world can give. This is because Christ’s peace…
Continue ReadingJesus says to us today, “whoever loves me will keep my word.” This is because we can only love what we know, and because we know Christ, we recognize the truth of his words. That doesn’t mean that it is always easy. In chapter 6 of the Gospel of John, Jesus is teaching the…
Continue ReadingIn today’s gospel passage, Jesus tells us, “I am the vine, you are the branches.” This is a beautiful thought, that we are connected to Christ, and that his life flows into us and gives us a share in his Divine life. We shouldn’t think of this as being metaphorical. Rather, it is very…
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