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The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Today’s readings The tradition of the Assumption of Mary dates back to the very earliest days of the Church, all the way back to the days of the apostles. It was known that Mary had “fallen asleep” and that there is a “Tomb of Mary” close to Mount Zion, where the early Christian community had…
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St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe, priest and martyr
Today’s readings Maximilian Kolbe became a Franciscan novice at the age of 16. Earlier in life he had a vision of the Blessed Virgin offering him two crowns, a white one of purity, and a red one of martyrdom. Maximilian said, “I choose both.” The Blessed Virgin smiled and departed from him. Maximilian devoted his…
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Wednesday of the Ninteenth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings Living the Christian life never means that we just calmly except anything another person does. But we do need to follow a certain procedure in dealing with those sins against us. It’s not right, for example, when we are wronged, or when we perceive we are wronged, to immediately email everyone we know…
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Saint Lawrence, Deacon & 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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Friday of the Eighteenth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings Today’s Liturgy of the Word asks us to ponder the question, “what do we have to do to remain in covenant with God?” And the question, I think, is an important one. We would want to respond to God’s gracious act of covenanting with us first. We see in today’s readings that he…
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Wednesday of the Eighteenth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings We have an interesting dichotomy in today’s Liturgy of the Word. First, we have the people Israel, who, as you know if you’ve been following the story these last couple of weeks, have been saved miraculously from abject slavery in Egypt, led through the desert and through the Red Sea to safety, fed…
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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 – all of them – is that the spiritual life is always about the big picture. The Israelites, as I mentioned in my homily yesterday, have completely rejected the God of their salvation. God had taken them from abject slavery in…
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Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time [ Cycle B]
Today’s readings When I was growing up, sometimes we would ask Mom what was for dinner, and she would often reply, “I don’t know; it’s not three o’clock yet!” We were blessed, though. We could count on the fact that there would always be something for dinner and that it would be good. We just…
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Thursday of the Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings The Israelites wandering in the desert would seem to have had the spiritual life easy. How could they possibly miss God’s presence? There was a cloud to lead them to the Lord by day, and fire by night. But just like the stuff that ended up in the net in today’s Gospel, some…
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St. 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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