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Thursday of the First Week of Lent: Persistent Prayer
Today’s readings The readings for these early days of Lent are focused on teaching us how to accomplish the various disciplines of Lent – which really are the various disciplines of the spiritual life. The whole point is that we enter more deeply into the spiritual life during these days of Lent, with a view…
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The First Sunday of Lent: Remembering Who We Are
Today’s readings Perhaps the greatest sin of modern times, maybe of all time, is that we sometimes forget who we are. Politicians forget that they are elected officials, given the trust of the people they serve, and so they become embroiled in a scandal or sell themselves to special interest groups. Church leaders forget that…
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Friday after Ash Wednesday
Today’s readings A lot of people say they aren’t giving up something for Lent, they’re just going to try to do something positive. I think that can be a little vague, to be honest. I usually tell people it doesn’t just have to be one or the other. Indeed, today’s Liturgy of the Word tells…
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Thursday after Ash Wednesday: The Road Less Traveled
Today’s readings When I hear today’s readings, I very often think of the poem, “The Road Less Traveled,” by Robert Frost. It goes, of course, like this: Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood and looked down one as far as…
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Ash Wednesday
Today’s readings The Scriptures today call us to repentance, which is an important spiritual theme for Lent. In fact, if it were not for our need for repentance, we wouldn’t need Jesus, he wouldn’t have to have taken on flesh, he wouldn’t have to suffer and die. But we do need a Savior, and so…
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Thursday of the Fourth Week of Ordinary Time
In this short reading from Mark’s gospel, Jesus tells us three things about our mission as disciples. First, we don’t do it alone. Ministry is never something that we do by ourselves. True ministry is never a matter of our personal preference or even of what we personally think should be done. True ministry is…
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Monday of the Fourth Week of Ordinary Time
“O LORD, how many are my adversaries!” That is what the Psalmist cries out today. And well he might, because we see those many adversaries in today’s Liturgy of the Word. The casting out of the demon Legion is a chilling one for us, I think, because it’s really our story. How many of us…
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The Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time: Loving Communities of Faith
Today’s readings Today’s second reading is certainly familiar to anyone who has been to a church wedding. It’s easy to see why so many couples would choose that reading: the romantic nature of the love they have for one another wants a reading as sweet and beautiful as this to be proclaimed at their wedding.…
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Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul
If we think that we are the ones who get to determine the direction of our lives, we are dead wrong. Look at Saul: educated in all the finest Jewish schools, well-versed in the Law and the Prophets, and zealous for the faith to a fault. He was absolutely the model Jewish man and had…
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The Third Sunday of Ordinary Time: Fulfilled in Your Hearing!
Today’s readings I want to begin my homily by reminding you of the words we heard in our first reading from Nehemiah: He read out of the book from daybreak till midday, in the presence of the men, the women, and those children old enough to understand; and all the people listened attentively to the…
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