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Monday of the Nineteenth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings The fathers of the Church teach us to “love what Jesus loved when he was on the cross, and despise what Jesus despised when he was on the cross.” We get that same kind of message from Moses today in the first reading. He tells the Israelites that their God loves the widow,…
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Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr
Today’s readings St. Lawrence was a deacon of the early Church, who was charged with the care of the goods of the Church. Legend has it that he was called in by the Prefect of Rome, who had just killed Pope Sixtus, whose feast day we celebrated last week. The Prefect told Lawrence that he…
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Saint Dominic, priest
On a journey through France with his bishop, St. Dominic came across the Albigensian heresy. The Albigensians believed in just good and evil – there was no middle ground. For them, anything material was evil, which meant that they denied the Incarnation and the sacraments. On the same principle they abstained from procreation and took…
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The Transfiguration of the Lord
Today’s readings Sometimes I think that, because of the limitedness of our minds, we accept a rather small view of Jesus. I think that was true for the disciples too, although they had a good excuse: they didn’t have two thousand years of Church history to guide them! So they were definitely familiar with the…
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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…
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The Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time [C]
Today’s readings This has been a rather busy pastoral week for me. I’ve had a couple of funerals this week, and seem to have been called to the hospital a little more frequently than what I’d consider usual. I’ve ministered to a couple whose baby was stillborn; I anointed a child and a woman in…
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Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Today’s readings In today’s first reading, Moses sets about putting up a meeting tent as a place for the Lord to be among his people. The Lord never abandoned his people; he was present in a column of cloud during the day, and of fire at night. The presence of God helps us to focus…
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Saint Martha
Today’s readings You know, I think St. Martha gets kind of a bad rap in general. She is maybe best known for the fact that she complained about having to do all the cooking and serving while her sister Mary sat at Jesus’ feet the whole time. But I think that reputation is undeserved. I…
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Saint Benedict, Abbot
I must say that today, I observe with great fondness this feast of St. Benedict, 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…
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Monday of the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings In today’s readings, God proves himself trustworthy. He appears to Jacob in a dream and promises that he will be with him wherever he goes, protecting him, and bringing him back to the land, which he would also give to Jacob’s descendants. In his joy, Jacob reacts by consecrating the land to the…
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