Food in the form of bread, wine and water, everyday things, lies at the heart of our sacramental practice. As St. Theresa of Avila told her sisters: “God is found among the pots and pans.†If you visit her convent in Avila today, among other pious memorabilia in the little repository shop, you can buy […]
Thirty First Sunday in Ordinary Time – “B†– November 4, 2012 Read More »
Imagine being on a commuter train in the rush hour. It snakes its way out of the city as night is falling. In the great tower blocks that flank the line the lights are going on. Each bright window represents a family; someone is saying, “What do you want for your tea?†Someone is saying,
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time – “B†– October 28, 2012 Read More »
When John and James approached Jesus and asked to be given prominent places in the kingdom of God, Jesus told them that heaven is not like an earthly kingdom in which there are places of greater and lesser importance, where a person’s value lies in power and material possessions. If James and John wanted to
Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time – “B†– Heritage Sunday – October 21, 2012 Read More »
In our culture today there is a monumental clash of opinions concerning the institution of marriage. The church needs to be aware of it; Christians need to be taking it very seriously! There are those, speaking from a purely secular point of view, who insist that human beings, over the course of many centuries, have
Solemnity of the Christian Family – October 14, 2012 Read More »
Today in the Gospel we see Jesus being questioned again, being tested again. His questioners are not interested in His answers so much as in finding His weaknesses. The Pharisees, Jesus’ interrogators, are looking for a headline, a sound bite to use against Jesus: “Jesus takes the hard line†or “Jesus is soft.†But Jesus
Twenty Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time – “B†– October 7, 2012 Read More »
Lord Acton was one of the most influential Catholic lay people in England in the 19th century. He wrote in a letter his famous dictum: Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Jesus is concerned with the misuse of power in the Gospel but, to appreciate this, it helps to see what comes
Twenty Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time – “B†– September 30, 2012 Read More »
To emphasize His own vision of leadership, Jesus give His disciples the example of paying attention to a child. In ancient cultures, children were the least important of people. People had children to serve them and provide financial security in their elder years. And they had many children because the mortality rate for children under
Twenty Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time – “B†– September 23, 2012 Read More »
In today’s Gospel Jesus teaches that, as the Messiah, He is the Son of Man who is destined to suffer and die. Peter, having been the first to profess openly that Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messiah who will liberate Israel, then seems to go and spoil it all by incuring Jesus’ reproof and
Twenty Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time – “B†– September 16, 2012 Read More »
“He was driving home one evening, on a two-lane country road. Work, in this small mid-western community, was almost as slow as his beat-up Pontiac. But he never quit looking. Ever since the Levi’s factory closed, he’d been unemployed, and with winter raging on, the chill had finally hit home. It was a lonely road.
Solemnity of Brotherly Love – September 9, 2012 Read More »
When societies or governments create lots of laws, it’s often a sign that something is going wrong with that particular society. St. Thomas Aquinas tells us, the original and proper use of the law is to help people live virtuously. It is to encourage their basic goodness, and to help them live together in harmony.
Twenty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time – “B†– September 2, 2012 Read More »