Zephaniah 3:14-18 Philippians 4:4-7 Isaiah 12:2-6 Luke3:10-18 Are you ready for Christmas? It’s only a week away! Yes….I saw your eyes roll and the look of stress on your faces! It’s seems like that is the response I get from many adults. Christmas seems to be a time that brings us more stress and anxiety […]
Baruch 5:1-9; Phil 1:4-6, 8-11; Luke 3: 1-6 Advent leads us to “discern what is of value,” St. Paul says, so that we “may advance secure in the glory of God,” St. Paul says in Philippians and to us today. Who doesn’t want to be secure and gain what is valuable? We all know this, […]
Tonight we celebrate Mary conceived without sin in the womb of St. Anne. She was, in deed the fruit of the sexual union of St. Joachim and St. Anne, yet she was conceived i.e. with no sin, not subject to the lower desires of nature [concupiscence] that weigh us down. There were no obstacles to God’s […]
Jer 23:1-6; Eph 2:13-18; Mk 6:30-34 We see in sacred scripture that Jesus often went off to deserted places to pray to hear his father speaking to him. He listens within. When he returns from those places, he is ready to begin a new phase of his public life, with an expanded sense of his […]
Wis 1:13-15; 2:23-24; 2 Cor 8:7,9,13-15; Mk 5:21-43 This week I was remembering visiting a church in another diocese when I was on vacation. I was turning into the church driveway, I couldn’t help but notice a large electronic sign board, flashing a message in multi colors. It said: “Pray 4 Nick.” I also noticed […]
Birth of John the Baptist We are in the days of the summer solstice. Today we celebrate the Birth of Saint John the Baptist. The Church Christianized the summer solstice as it did the winter solstice, making it Christmas. Six months from today is Christmas. The Solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist is […]
Solemnity of Corpus Christi Ex 24:3-8; Heb 9:11-15; Mk 14:12-16, 22-26 Blood, blood, blood. These are bloody readings. The image of blood runs all through them, from Exodus in the Old Testament to Hebrews and Mark in the New Testament, from animal sacrifice to the blood sacrifice of Christ, for the forgiveness of sins. It […]
Is 52:13-53: 12; Heb 4:14-16; 5:7-9; John 13:1-19: 42 We faithful are confronted with the death of the Lord today. Do we believe that there is life beyond death, beyond the grave? Who will save us from ourselves? This is the dramatic question presented to us by this Friday we call Good. Why do we […]
John 13: 1-15 Cycle B Tonight is our Passover Feast. Christ is the new Passover. He is the new Moses, the new covenant. He is the lamb who sacrifices himself. Jesus, an observant Jew, knows this. He knows who he is; that he is the Messiah, the fulfillment of God’s plan. He is the one […]
Sam 16: 1, 6-7,10-13; Eph 5:8-14; John 9:1-41 Today at the pool of Siloam Jesus says “I am the light of the world.” The man born blind is in the dark. Jesus opens his eyes – and ours, to the Light. But the Pharisees stay in the dark. The question: are we in the light […]