What Are You Looking For?
For Sunday, October 25, 2015, 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time Nearly thirty years ago, U2 proclaimed in their hit song, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” —an anthem for searchers everywhere. A generation later, it seems, we’re still searching. A study a few years back found that people are changing religions at a phenomenal […]
There Is No Need to Fear
For Sunday, October 18, 2015, 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time It is quite amazing to consider the status that Blessed Mother Teresa gained in this world by living a life that certainly was not mainstream in any modern culture. While so many of us on this planet sought to advance ourselves and accumulate more and more […]
Between the Francises
For Sunday, October 11, 2015 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time Wisdom 7:7-11 Hebrews 4:12-13 Mark 10:17-30 or 10:17-27 He’s back in Rome. That gentle smile is no longer dominating our TV screens. His halting English is no longer a challenge coming over our radio waves. Pope Francis is no longer on American soil. Have we […]
Built to Last
For Sunday, October 4, 2015, 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time It seems today that nothing is built to last. I remember as a child the first refrigerator housed in my childhood home. It was by no means new, and back in 1958 when the house was built and it moved in, it was already ten years […]
Pope Francis and the Family
For Sunday, September 27, 2015, 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time This week, Pope Francis begins his historic visit to the United States. We can expect the news media to provide extensive coverage and analysis of this popular pontiff’s words and actions, with Time Warner Cable dedicating a channel to the visit for “fans of Pope Francis.” […]
Embrace the Smallest
For Sunday, September 20, 2015, 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time Long before he became the cardinal archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan was the rector of the North American College in Rome. He used to give regular talks to the seminarians, which were collected in a very good book called Priests for the Third Millennium. In […]
Who Do You Say that I Am?
For Sunday, September 13, 2015, 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time A new Pew Forum Study looking at the views of American Catholics on family life, sexuality, and Catholic identity has concluded that 45% of Americans are Catholic or are “connected to Catholicism.” It gauged people’s views of the topics mentioned, but in some ways, the figure […]
The Dream of the Kingdom
For Sunday, September 6, 2015, 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Last Saturday evening, at Mass in Be’er Sheva, Israel, the young Polish pastor asked a strange question, “How do you get here?” His answer, too, was strange, “Go to the end of the world and turn left!” He proceeded to remind the ten of us in […]
Dialogue at the Table
For Sunday, August 30, 2015, 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Over the past several years, we have heard the term “cafeteria Catholic” employed in a variety of ways. In more conservative circles, it is largely viewed through negative lenses referring to individuals who want to pick and choose the type of “Catholicism” that suits them, thus […]
There Is Love
For Sunday, August 23, 2015, 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time In the years that I was involved in liturgy planning for weddings, engaged couples almost invariably wanted to include a secular song as part of the ceremony. Often it would have been a song they heard on their first date, one they may have danced to, […]
Bread that Satisfies Our Hunger for Peace
For Sunday, August 16, 2015, 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time When it comes to anniversaries, this August has been particularly poignant. Within a few days of each other, we’ve noted the seventieth anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan, the one-year anniversary of the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the […]
Faith Should Always Trump Politics
For Sunday, August 9, 2015, 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time Presidential election politics are heating up and, unbelievably, the election is over a year away! It would be easy to become overloaded as this period of time passes by. As I am writing this, I think at least twenty-four people are running for President of the […]