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Tuesday of the Twenty-fifth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings Today’s Gospel reminds me of a sound bite for the evening news or a shoddy post on social media. Taken out of context, Jesus is denying his family. And not only that, but Jesus now has “brothers,” so what happened to the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary? Sound bites cause nothing…
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Saint Pius of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio), Priest
Today’s readings At the age of 15, Francesco Forgione joined the Capuchins and took the name of Pio. He was ordained in 1910 and was drafted during World War I. After he was discovered to have tuberculosis, he was discharged. In 1917 he was assigned to the friary in San Giovanni Rotondo. On September 20,…
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Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist
Today’s readings For those of us who strive to live as disciples, today’s feast is really a great joy. I say that because Matthew was qualified to be a disciple of Jesus in much the same way that we are qualified to be disciples of Jesus – which is to say, not at all, really.…
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Saints Andrew Kim Tae-gŏn, Priest, and Paul Chŏng Ha-sang, and Companions, Martyrs
Korea was introduced to Christianity in the late 1500s when some Koreans were baptized, probably by Christian Japanese soldiers who invaded Korea at that time. It was not until the late 1700s that a priest managed to sneak into Korea, and when he did, he found about 4000 Catholics, none of whom had ever seen…
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Thursday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s readings Simon the Pharisee committed a grave error in hospitality, and a serious error in judgment. In those days, when a guest came to your home, you made sure to provide water for him or her to wash their feet, because the journey on foot was often long and hot and dirty, and it…
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Saint Hildegard of Bingen, Virgin and Doctor of the Church
Today is the memorial of Saint Hildegard of Bingen, a twelfth century German Benedictine nun and Doctor of the Church. She was a writer, music composer, philosopher, mystic, cook, medical doctor, and Benedictine abbess. Clearly she was a very busy woman! She was very sick in her childhood, and so her parents promised her to…
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The Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Special Needs Mass)
Today’s readingsMass with special needs families. The Apostle Saint James in our second reading today attacks what is, to me, a very prevalent attitude that people can often have. “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well” – we see that kind of thing all the time. When a tragedy happens, we will see people…
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The Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today’s readings What feels like a hundred years ago, now, when I was a young adult, I had a membership to a boxing gym that I would go to after work. The gym had a class at that time, and it was a group of people a lot like me, men and women my age…
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Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Saint John Chrysostom was known to be a prolific, well-spoken and challenging preacher. The name “Chrysostom” means “golden-mouthed.” He spoke eloquently of the Scriptures, of which he had an extensive understanding, and applied their words to the times of his day. He was known, actually, to often preach for two hours or more! So, in…
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The Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Today we celebrate a new-ish feast of Mary on the American version of the Church Calendar. The feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary began in Spain in 1513 and in 1671 was extended to all of Spain and the Kingdom of Naples. In 1683, King John Sobieski, of Poland, brought an army to…
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