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Thursday of the Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings Today’s readings present us with two very interesting images. The first is that of a potter working at the wheel. When the object turned out badly, the potter re-created the object until it was right. Jeremiah tells us that just so is Israel, in the hand of the LORD. Not that God couldn’t…
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Saints Joachim & Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Grandparents of Our Lord
Today’s readings We don’t know much, well anything really, about Saints Joachim and Anne. Even in the Gospels where the ancestry of Jesus is traced, nothing is really said about Mary’s family, so we don’t have names that tell us anything about who Mary’s parents were. Their names themselves are really sourced by legend written…
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Saint James, Apostle
Today’s readings “Can you drink the chalice of which I am going to drink?” What does that even mean for us? We know what Jesus’ chalice was like: it led him through sorrow, and abandonment, and ultimately to the cross. If we have ever been in a situation in which we have felt intense grief,…
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The Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time: Pray Without Ceasing!
Today’s readings Prayer is that activity that people of God have at their disposal to remain in contact with God. It takes many forms: intercessory prayer, in which we pray for people or issues; adoration, in which we extol the greatness of God; confession, in which we note how, in comparison to God’s glory, we…
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Saint Benedict, Abbot, Founder of Western Monasticism
It is with great fondness that I observe this feast of St. Benedict the abbot, and father of western monasticism. My Benedictine roots stem from my college days at Benedictine University in Lisle (then called Illinois Benedictine College), and I have a deep fondness for the monks of St. Procopius Abbey, who staffed the college,…
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Friday of the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings Our God never promises that the life of faith and discipleship will be an easy one; only that it will be blessed. One thing is certain: that life will certainly entail hardship, even suffering. That’s pretty evident in today’s Gospel reading. Faithful disciples have to worry about being betrayed by even their closest…
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Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings Today’s Gospel underlines the failure of the Jewish leaders of the time. Jesus was casting out demons from many people, which was what they were supposed to do but could not. They were too busy attending to the minutiae of the Law instead of seeing to the salvation of souls, which is what…
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The Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings So Jesus’ ministry is ramping up into full gear. In order to prepare the places he intends to visit, he sends out seventy-two disciples, in pairs, to prepare the way. They are going to do some of the same things he will do: curing the sick, healing the broken, and preaching the Kingdom…
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The Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time: Freedom!
Today’s readings “For freedom Christ set us free.” So writes Saint Paul in our second reading today. And it’s a beautiful reflection for this weekend, when we are getting ready for our Independence Day celebrations. When our nation’s founders set up this fledgling republic 240 years ago, freedom was certainly one of their primary concerns.…
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Thursday of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time
Some people say all you need to do is make a one-time decision to accept Jesus as your personal Savior and you’re saved. If salvation were something magical that came about as the result of just saying a simple prayer, once and for all, then why wouldn’t everyone do that? The fact is, salvation is…
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