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Thursday of the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings This morning’s Gospel parable is admittedly a bit of a head scratcher. It almost seems to portray our God in a rather unfavorable light, comparing him to a capricious king who destroys whole cities after being snubbed by some invited guests, and then tosses out a visitor who seems to have come to…
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Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Abbot and Doctor of the Church
Today’s readings Learning to follow the path of perfection is the most important goal of the spiritual life. How do we get our relationship with God right so that we can live with him forever in heaven? That was certainly the goal of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, whose feast we celebrate today. In the year…
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The Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time – Bread of Life Discourse IV: Choosing the Table of the Lord
Today’s readings Today we have set before us two tables. One is the incredibly rich banquet of wisdom, and the other… let’s call it the fast food of foolishness, I guess. What we need to ask ourselves today is, at which table have we been eating, and is that where we want to find our…
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Saturday of the Nineteenth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings “Return and live!” This is very good advice from the prophet Ezekiel. He was preaching to a nation that was steeped in sin, and whose sinfulness was passed on from previous generations. But unlike the punishments of old, where God punished those who sinned for many generations, Ezekiel proclaimed that God was going…
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The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Vigil Mass)
Today’s readings The tradition of the Assumption of Mary dates back to the very earliest days of the Church, all the way back to the days of the apostles. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 tells us that, after Mary’s death, the apostles opened the tomb, finding it empty, and concluded that she had been…
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Monday of the Nineteenth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings Things are starting to get real for those first followers of Jesus. Jesus speaks to his disciples at the beginning of today’s Gospel reading about his impending demise. He foretells that he will be handed over and killed. And the disciples are overwhelmed with grief. Certainly we can resonate with their grief. They’ve…
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The Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time – Bread of Life Discourse III: Bread for the Journey
Today’s readings You may have heard of Viaticum, which we generally think of as one’s last Communion. Indeed, the Church encourages us by precept of the Church to receive Holy Communion in our last moments, if at all possible. The word viaticum is Latin for “bread for the journey.” So in our last moments, when we set…
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The Transfiguration of the Lord
Today’s readings How do you picture Jesus? We’ve never seen him face to face, but we have definitely seen artwork depicting him. That artwork can be very inspiring. But that artwork can also give us a perhaps false, overly-familiar look at Jesus our God. I tend to think Peter, James and John also had a…
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The Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time: Bread of Life Discourse II – What’s Your Hunger?
Today’s readings My niece Molly used to say that she wanted to open a restaurant when she grows up. She even had a name all picked out for it: “Hungry.” That makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Where are you going to go when you’re hungry? Well, to Hungry, of course! I…
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