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Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings Today’s Gospel underlines the failure of the Jewish leaders of the time. Jesus was casting out demons from many people, which was what they were supposed to do but could not. They were too busy attending to the the Law instead of seeing to the salvation of souls, which is what the Law…
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The Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time: Blessed be the Name of Jesus
Today’s readings “Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name.” I don’t think we really understand and respect the power of the name of Jesus in our day to day lives. Very often people take the name of the Lord in vain, violating the second commandment of the Decalogue, and even…
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Saint Irenaeus, Bishop, Doctor, and Martyr
When a person faces opposition from erroneous ideology, there is a difference between refutation or winning an argument and correction. It might even be fair to say that many people are up to the task of winning an argument, but it takes a saint to be content with correction. Certainly that can be seen quite…
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The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
Today’s readings Perhaps the most distinctive aspect of Catholic worship is our celebration of the Eucharist. We state very strongly that it’s not just a symbol, not just a nice memory. It is the actual Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord. We know that we are spiritually in the presence of our…
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The Solemnity of Pentecost
Today’s readings We’ve gathered today on the Solemnity of Pentecost … one of my favorite feasts of the whole year. Today, we have one last opportunity to celebrate the joy of the Easter season. For fifty days, we’ve been celebrating our Lord’s resurrection, his triumph over the grave, and his defeat of sin and death.…
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Saint Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs
Today’s readings Today is the anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood, 16 years ago. It is also Father John’s anniversary of thirty-three years. I find our Liturgy today to be particularly inspirational on this anniversary day. First we have Saint Paul who is standing trial for his witness and preaching of the faith. Then…
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The Ascension of the Lord
Today’s readings If you feel like your life lately has been a crazy, roller-coaster ride of an existence, you might probably relate to the Apostles and disciples of the early church in today’s readings, and perhaps the fruits of today’s feast will be of comfort to you. For those early disciples, today’s feast had to…
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The Dedication of the Cathedral of Saint Raymond Nonnatus
Today we celebrate the dedication of the Cathedral of Saint Raymond Nonnatus Cathedral in Joliet, the mother church of our diocese. The parish of Saint Raymond was founded on June 28, 1917 by Archbishop Mundelein of the Archdiocese of Chicago in response to the increasing population on Joliet’s then-new west side. This of course would…
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The Sixth Sunday of Easter
Today’s readings Our readings today revolve around the theological virtue of hope. Hope is the virtue that recognizes our desire for happiness in this life and the next, which is an aspiration placed in our hearts by God himself (CCC 1818). According to the Catechism, the virtue of hope causes us to “desire the kingdom…
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Friday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Today’s readings Today’s scriptures speak to us about the essence of what it means to live a Christian life. First, as we can see in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles, it means making a clean break with the ways that we have been tethered to the world. For the newest members of…
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