Today’s readings In some ways, today’s Liturgy of the Word sets before us life and death once again. We get to choose our fate, but we must back our choice with the actions of our lives. It’s not enough for us to claim to be righteous, because righteousness, literally a right relationship, means that righteous…

Today’s readings Have you noticed that the readings for these early days of Lent have been teaching us how to accomplish the various disciplines of Lent, which really are the various disciplines of the spiritual life? Today’s discipline then, I think, would be persistence in prayer. In the first reading, we have Queen Esther, who…

Today’s readings “There is something greater than Jonah here.” I had a friend in seminary who used to remark that the people of ancient Israel wandering through the desert had a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. How could they possibly go wrong, he would ask, when they had…

Today’s readings The prophet Isaiah and Jesus speak today about the great power of words. Isaiah speaks specifically of the power of God’s word, a word that will not return empty but will go out and accomplish the purpose for which God sent it. We see the word that the prophets speaks of here, of…

Today’s readings Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy. People often balk at the mere suggestion of being called to personally holiness. Oftentimes, this is wrapped up in a misplaced and false humility, that kind of humility that says that since I’m good for nothing, there is no way I can even…

Today’s readings During the Easter Vigil Mass, less than forty days from now, we will be asked three very important questions: Do you reject Satan? And all his works? And all his empty promises? The response to each of these questions, of course, is “I do,” and we are called to answer them so that…

Today’s readings Lent is a time that calls all of us to take on the virtue of humility. Not the kind of humility that says “I’m good for nothing,” because God never made anything that was good for nothing. That isn’t humility at all, really, it’s just self-loathing, and there’s nothing virtuous about that. The…

Today’s readings Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood and looked down one as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, and having perhaps the better claim because it…

[Okay, when I said I wasn’t posting my homily that’s before the snow made me do the 7:30pm Mass instead of our weekend assistant. So here’s the more adult-oriented homily I gave at that Mass, excerpted and adapted from last year.] Today’s readings Behold: now is the acceptable time! Behold: now is the day of…