Where the World Ends and Heaven Begins
For Sunday, May 29, 2016, Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ Panis Angelicus fit panis hominum. (May the bread of Angels become bread for mankind.) This world is not always the easiest place to live. Few would mistake our earthly existence for heaven. Yet, we live in hope of heaven because God crashed into […]
Claiming the Holy Trinity
For Sunday, May 22, 2016, Most Holy Trinity The day after Pentecost Sunday, we re-entered the “green days” of ordinary time. These are the days, weeks, and months when we are given a breathing space to allow the seeds of faith planted within us during our celebrations of Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, and Pentecost to begin […]
Wind and Fire
For Sunday, May 15, 2016, Pentecost Sunday The house shook! Doors slammed! Curtains billowed! The winds screamed as they raced through the house! Was there a trace of smoke riding along? Even the patio screen door banged open! Our hearts began racing with fear of a tornado. Should we seek shelter? There was no basement […]
The In-Between Time
For Sunday, May 8, 2016, Ascension of the Lord It happens to all of us now and again. We know what is coming, and yet we do not fully understand it: the anticipation of a wedding, or the birth of a first child, a graduation and the new life that commences, or the beginning of a […]
The Spirit that Leads to Truth
For Sunday, May 1, 2016, 6th Sunday of Easter During my years in the seminary, the faculty warned us against cherishing “a myopic nostalgia for a church you did not know.” To a seminarian in the 80s, “a church we did not know” referred to the church before the Second Vatican Council. For young men […]
As Jesus Loved
For Sunday, April 24, 2016, 5th Sunday of Easter For those old enough to remember, there is a popular Beatles song released in 1967 called “All You Need Is Love.” The song quickly became popular and still holds some measure of popularity even today. The point of the song is as clear as its title […]
Which Child Are You?
For Sunday, April 17, 2016, 4th Sunday of Easter Which child are you? It is that time of the year: Easter comes; the weather in the Northern Hemisphere begins to warm; school children anticipate summer vacation; families gather. Reunions and graduations, vacations and weddings—whatever the occasion, families and friends anticipate time together for months as […]
Continuing the Mission
For Sunday, April 10, 2016, 3rd Sunday of Easter Saint Peter had always been an enthusiastic follower of Jesus. His faith was generous and open, but also subject to the limits of human weakness. “The school of faith,” recalled Pope Benedict XVI, “is not a triumphal march but a journey marked daily by suffering and […]
Healing Our Woundedness
For Sunday, April 3, 2016, 2nd Sunday of Easter Wounds! Wounds! Wounds! It seems that everywhere we look in our world today there are wounds! Last week’s horrendous happenings in Brussels brought back fresh memories of the tragedy in Paris not so long ago. That triggers the horrors of Boston and the more than three […]
Credible Witnesses
For Sunday, March 27, 2016, Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord Many years ago, there was a popular poster that read, “If you were put on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” In today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we hear of the […]
Welcoming and Rejecting Our Savior
For Sunday, March 20, 2016, Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion Why do we read the long narrative of Jesus’ suffering and death on Palm Sunday rather than just focus on his triumphant entry into Jerusalem? The primary reason is liturgical. Popularly, we call this Sunday of Holy Week “Palm Sunday” because of the traditional […]
Liberating Mercy
For Sunday, March 13, 2016, 5th Sunday of Lent I recently saw the small independent film, The Lady in the Van, starring Maggie Smith, otherwise known as the Countess of Grantham for all you Downton Abbey fans. (As I write this, the series finale is about to air here in the States.) The true story, which […]