-
Saturday of the Twenty-first Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings The Gospel readings these past few days have warned of rather dire consequences for those who don’t live the Gospel message. This section of Matthew’s Gospel spells out the urgency of the call to discipleship and the nearness of the Kingdom of God. Yesterday, the foolish virgins were left out of the kingdom,…
-
The Passion of Saint John the Baptist
Today’s readings What we are celebrating in today’s feast is the fact that prison bars cannot silence truth. John the Baptist was not asked to renounce his faith; indeed Herod was probably very interested in John’s faith and may have even asked him about it on occasion. Not that he wanted to convert, mind you,…
-
The Twenty-first Sunday of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings One of my jobs before I went to seminary was in the sales department of a computer supply company. In that job, they taught us that one of the first good rules of sales was never to ask a question to which you didn’t already know the answer. I think teachers get taught…
-
Saturday of the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings One of the spiritual principles that often speaks to me is: “it’s not about me.” It’s a spiritual principle I have to remind myself of often, because in our human weakness, we’re always thinking about ourselves first. But here today, we have two wonderful Scriptural examples of this beautiful spiritual principle. First we…
-
Saint Pius X, Pope
Today’s readings A good starting place for our prayer this morning might be asking ourselves, what is it that holds us back? The rich young man seemed to have it all together: he acknowledged Jesus as the good teacher, so he must have been familiar with what Jesus said and did. He says he kept…
-
Reflections on the Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings Friends, I wasn’t going to do a homily today since it’s my last day of vacation. But I got a message from a friend who was troubled by the Gospel, and I realized it’s so commonly misunderstood that it can be troublesome. So that said, I’ll just make a few important points. First…
-
The Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Today's readings I have to tell you, we have two of my very favorite readings in today’s Liturgy of the Word. I like them because they both show God interacting with us, his creatures, in powerful ways. In the first reading, we see the prophet Elijah literally running for his life. He has just embarrassed,…
-
Saturday of the Eighteenth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings “Because of your little faith.” If that was what Jesus said about his disciples, those men and women walking with him in person day after day, how much more does it apply to us today? How many situations absolutely confound us? How many injustices seem chronically irreparable? How many emotional crises seem insurmountable?…
-
Saint Clare, Virgin
Today we celebrate Saint Clare, who, having refused to marry at 15, was moved by the dynamic preaching of Saint Francis. He became her lifelong friend and spiritual guide. So at age 18, she escaped one night from her father’s home, in order to flee the pressure to marry, and was met on the road…
-
Monday of the Eighteenth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings What I think the folks in our first reading need to learn – and maybe us too – is that the spiritual life is always about the big picture. The Israelites in today’s reading have completely rejected the God of their salvation. God had taken them from abject slavery in Egypt, in which…
You must be logged in to post a comment.