Today's readings [display_podcast] Today’s readings represent some of the deepest longings of the human heart, and expose one of the deepest wounds of the human heart. The deep wound is the feeling of abandonment that we experience in the midst of trial. Just as the Jews must have felt abandoned by God when the walls… Continue reading Friday of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time
Month: June 2008
Thursday of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time
Today's readings [display_podcast] I read a quote recently that said, more or less, that you can have a relationship with anyone, but you have intimacy with relatively few people. The evangelical call for everyone to have a relationship with Jesus Christ is, in fact, lacking. If salvation were something magical that came about as the… Continue reading Thursday of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time
The Birth of St. John the Baptist
Today's readings [display_podcast] “What, then. will this child be?” That question from today’s Gospel is certainly key for the celebration of the birth of St. John the Baptist, but definitely also appropriate for all of us too. At the birth of John the Baptist, the Incarnation was starting to get noticeable. God’s plan had already… Continue reading The Birth of St. John the Baptist
Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Today's readings [display_podcast] On March 4th, in 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated as the thirty-second President of the United States, for the first of four terms. As he began his presidency, the country was in economic crisis, mired as it was in the depression. There were all kinds of concerns in the country at… Continue reading Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Friday of the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time
Today's readings [display_podcast] I have to admit I was totally at a loss with the first reading. It's hard to read the names, let alone get the meaning. I think it can be done, but I opted out because I was moved by the Gospel. And that's totally okay! “Where your treasure is, there your… Continue reading Friday of the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time
Thursday of the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time
Today's readings [display_podcast] Sadly, the prayer that our Lord gave us to avoid multiplying words and babbling like the pagans can so much become for us an occasion to do that very thing. We can rattle off the Lord’s Prayer so quickly and second-naturedly that we totally miss what we’re saying and miss the real… Continue reading Thursday of the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time
Monday of the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time
Today's readings [display_podcast] We have been reading the last several days from the very challenging portion of Matthew’s Gospel in which we hear Jesus use the formula: “You have heard it said … but I say to you…” Basically, in all of these instructions, Jesus is taking the old Jewish law and cranking it up… Continue reading Monday of the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time
Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time
Today's readings [display_podcast] I don’t know about you, but I think that lots of us when we were growing up, learned that we had to win or earn the Lord’s kindness. If we wanted God to love us, then we had to behave in the right ways and follow all the rules. And some of… Continue reading Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time
St. Anthony of Padua
Today's readings | Today's saint [display_podcast] You know, it’s a bit of a happy coincidence that we have today’s first reading on this feast of St. Anthony of Padua. St. Anthony, of course, is best known for his intercession on behalf of all of us who are forgetful and lose track of things from time… Continue reading St. Anthony of Padua
Thursday of the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time
Today's readings [display_podcast] Sometimes the Gospel just makes good common sense. Today, the Gospel expands on the Golden Rule, something we should all have learned when we were very little. As my grandmother used to say, if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. But actually what Jesus is telling us today… Continue reading Thursday of the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time