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Thursday of the Sixth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings In the aftermath of the great flood, what’s left is what God wants us to know is important: life. Life is the way we participate in the essence of our Creator God. And that life is so important that absolutely nothing could completely blot it out – not even the waters of the…
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Family Reconciliation Service
Reading: Mark 10:13-16 Well, we have some children here tonight, so this reading about Jesus embracing the little children makes some sense. But not all of us are children, are we? We have big people and little people and every age, and that’s very nice. But you know, we are all children of God, aren’t…
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Monday of the Sixth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings We’re still in the opening chapters of human history in our first reading, and in these opening chapters we see some of the less beautiful parts of human nature. These are deadly sins, and they have continued to plague humankind ever since. We start with envy, as Cain laments that his offering was…
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Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings “I do will it. Be made clean.” When I was in seminary, I did my hospital chaplaincy in my fourth summer at Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove. Every once in a while I would come to a room that was marked with a prominent sign stating that the room was quarantined and…
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Thursday of the Fifth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings “Blessed are those who fear the Lord,” the Psalmist tells us today. And today as our example of those who fear the Lord, we have two women. This is significant because the Scriptures, as you probably know, don’t make nearly enough mention of women; this is a side-effect of the times during which…
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St. Scholastica, Virgin
Today’s readings: Songs 8:6-7, Psalm 148, Luke 10:38-42 We are told in the Gospel today that “Mary has taken the better part and it will not be taken from her.” Much the same could be said about St. Scholastica, whose memorial we celebrate today. St. Scholastica is known as the sister of St. Benedict. Some…
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Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings A while ago now, I was working at my home parish, St. Petronille, on the staff as a youth minister. I remember the parish secretary well, she was a very nice woman named Dorothy. Whenever you’d ask Dorothy how she was, she’d always say, “Busy, busy, busy!” And I’m sure that she was…
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St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr
Today’s readings Historically speaking, we know almost nothing about St. Agatha other than the fact that she was martyred in Sicily during the persecution of Decius in the third century. Legend has it that Agatha was arrested as a Christian, tortured and sent to a house of prostitution to be mistreated. She was preserved from…
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St. Blase, bishop and martyr
Today’s readings All that we know for sure about St. Blase was that he was the bishop of Sebaste in Armenia during the fourth century. Everything else is legend, which means that it may or may not be true. Even if it’s not true, there is Truth in the legend, because it points us to…
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Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” If I put my mind to it, I suppose I could think of dozens of times when someone with more wisdom than I told me something I wasn’t willing to hear. Had I been open to those messages, things would have turned out…
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