• Forty Hours Devotion: Opening Mass of the Holy Eucharist

    Readings: Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; John 6:1-15 My Aunt Mia was an outstanding cook. And like all the outstanding cooks on my mom’s side of the family, she took pride in making people feel welcome and providing an incredible meal, a meal bigger than twice the number of people invited could ever manage…

  • Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

    Today’s readings Ancient sources say that we are to pray the Lord’s prayer at least seven times daily. Why? Because the Lord’s prayer in all its wonderful simplicity reminds us that we can turn to our heavenly Father who knows our needs and cares for our welfare. It reminds us that the best opportunities we…

  • Monday of the First Week of Lent

    Today’s readings Today’s readings are a celebration of God’s law. The Psalmist says that the Words of the Lord are spirit and life – these are the words that sustain us, make our society possible, and in the process bring joy to the heart. There are three characteristics of God’s law that really shine in…

  • First Sunday of Lent

    Today’s readings We’ve gathered here on the first Sunday of Lent, and as we might expect, our readings give us the motivation for how to spend these days of Lent. I’m not always sure that we get the idea of Lent as straight as we should. If we think Lent is just about giving things…

  • Thursday after Ash Wednesday

    Today’s readings When it comes right down to it, we have a choice. We can choose life or death, blessing or curse, the way of the Cross or the way of the world. The choice that we make has huge consequences, eternal consequences. The stakes are big ones, and we must choose wisely. Many of…

  • Ash Wednesday

    Today’s readings [from the Ash Wednesday Service of the Word] Behold: now is the acceptable time! Behold: now is the day of salvation! We have come here today for all sorts of reasons. Lots of us may still have the remnants of old and bad teaching that you have to come to Church on Ash…

  • Tuesday of the Seventh Week of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings In our first reading today, we have an instruction on the virtue of integrity. Integrity is that virtue by which we show that we are who we say we are, that we are in our secret moments what we are in our public ones, that we walk the walk and talk the talk.…

  • St. Polycarp, Bishop and Martyr

    Today’s readings St. Polycarp was the bishop of Smyrna and a disciple of the apostles. He is known to have accompanied St. Ignatius of Antioch to Rome to confer with Pope Anicetus concerning the celebration of Easter, which was quite a controversy in that time. He was known to be a man of faith and…

  • Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings One of the graces that I have here at the parish is that whenever I go to parish meetings, we always pray through the Gospel for the coming Sunday and discuss it. The Spirit works through the community, and more often than not, I’ll start thinking about the readings in a different light…

  • Saturday of the Sixth Week of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.” The writer of the letter to the Hebrews sums up for us this notion of faith, which can be so difficult to wrap our minds around. What I love about the definition of faith that comes to us…