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Pope Saint John Paul II
Today’s readings Today, we celebrate the feast of Pope Saint John Paul II, who was born in 1920 in Wadowice, Poland. After his ordination to the priesthood and theological studies in Rome, he returned to his homeland and resumed various pastoral and academic tasks. He was ordained an auxiliary bishop and, in 1964, became Archbishop…
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Ss. Isaac Jogues, John de Brébeuf and Companions, Martyrs
St. Isaac and St. John were among eight missionaries who worked among the Huron and Iroquois Indians in the New World in the seventeenth century. They were devoted to their work and were accomplishing many conversions. The conversions, though, were not welcomed by the tribes, and eventually St. Isaac was captured and imprisoned by the…
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The Twenty-ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time: Stewardship
Today’s readings At the heart of today’s Gospel reading is the question of whether or not we as disciples of Jesus are willing to go where he’s leading us. Much could be said about the posturing of James and John to get the good seats in the kingdom. But honestly, they didn’t even know what they was…
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Saint Teresa of Avila
Saint Teresa was a virgin, mystic, nun, reformer of the Carmelite order, and, with Saint John of the Cross, foundress of the Discalced Carmelites. When she was a girl, her father sent her for a time to live in an Augustinian convent, until she became ill about a year or so later. During her illness,…
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Monday of the Twenty-eighth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings I think it’s a pretty common experience for people to look for a sign from God. So many comedies have that premise somewhere in the story line. Don’t we all look for signs from God to make sure we’re doing the right thing? So signs are necessary and helpful events in our spiritual…
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The Twenty-seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings If you’ve been to any number of Church weddings, you have probably heard today’s first reading, and part of the Gospel proclaimed. Obviously we usually leave out the part about divorce, but these readings are quite popular for weddings. The reason, of course, is that the story is about how man and woman…
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Saint Thérèse of Liseaux, Virgin and Doctor of the Church
Today’s readings St. Thérèse knew well the instruction of today’s Gospel reading. She was one who sought to proclaim the Lord in every simple act of her life. St. Thérèse had a child-like faith, child-like, that is, in her trusting obedience to God’s will, even in the smallest of matters. She truly believed that small…
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The Twenty-sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings When we think about prophets and prophecy, I think our minds always take us to ancient days. All the prophets we can think of lived many centuries ago: Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah, Amos and all the rest, right up to John the Baptist who was the last of the prophets of old and the…
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Thursday of the Twenty-fifth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings You know, I think Herod was asking the right question. Sure, he was asking it for all the wrong reasons, but still, it is the right question. And that question is, “Who is Jesus?” What Herod was hearing about Jesus is pretty much what the disciples told Jesus when Jesus asked, “Who do…
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The Twenty-fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings There’s a principle in the spiritual life known in Greek as kenosis. Nobody likes to talk about it. It’s nicer to talk about the consolations of prayer and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and things like that. But nobody likes to talk about kenosis because, in English, we would translate that something…
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