• The Sixth Sunday of Easter

    Today’s readings It’s interesting to me that some of the first things we ever learn about God are also some of the most foundational, most important things we learn about God.  One such notion is that God is love.  We’ve learned that, probably, when we were small children.  But theologically, it bears out and serves…

  • Thursday of the Fifth Week of Easter (Religious Education and Confirmation Program Closing Mass)

    Today’s readings In our first reading this evening, we have from the Acts of the Apostles a rather defining moment for the early Church.  Jesus hadn’t given them a precise rule book of how to make the Church develop: he simply sent them out to baptize.  But he also told them to make disciples of all the…

  • May Crowning

    Today’s reading: Luke 1:42-50This was used at a May Crowning prayer service for the school children. I remember a time when I was in seminary, and I was on my pastoral internship, much like seminarian Frank is today.  I visited with a nice lady that I had visited often in the nursing home.  This time…

  • The Fifth Sunday of Easter

    Today’s readings When I was growing up, I often helped my parents trim the shrubs around the house.  We did it so that we could trim off the over-growth and make the shrubs look neater, but also to keep the shrubs healthy and growing. But when I did it, I often thought about the fact that…

  • Saint Joseph the Worker

    Today’s readings (I chose option 2 of the first readings.) In his encyclical, Laborem Exercens, Pope Saint John Paul II said, echoing the sentiments of the Second Vatican Council, “The word of God’s revelation is profoundly marked by the fundamental truth that humankind, created in the image of God, shares by their work in the activity…

  • The Fourth Sunday of Easter (Good Shepherd Sunday)

    Today’s readings Jesus uses an image in today’s Gospel that would have been very familiar to his hearers, and with it, he illustrates the significance of following one’s vocation in life. In a basically suburban place in the modern world, this image loses some of its clarity, since we don’t regularly have contact with people…

  • Friday of the Second Week of Easter

    Today’s readings Our first reading today is filled with kind of intense drama.  The disciples, ever since Jesus rose from the dead and sent them the gift of the Holy Spirit, have been going around and preaching in the name of Jesus.  This is obviously attracting the attention of the religious leaders, and they’re not…

  • Second Sunday of Easter (Sunday of Divine Mercy)

    Today’s readings I always like to say that today, this octave day of Easter Sunday, this Sunday of Divine Mercy, is the feast day for those of us who sometimes question things, and the apostle, Saint Thomas, is would then be our patron saint.  And so today we can give Thomas a hard time for…

  • Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of Our Lord

    Today’s readings There’s certainly a flurry of activity in today’s readings, isn’t there?  Especially in the Gospel, we see Mary Magdalene run from the empty tomb to get the Apostles.  And then Peter and the “disciple whom Jesus loved” ran to the tomb.  This flurry of activity centers around a crisis in their faith, a…

  • The Easter Vigil in the Holy Night

    Today’s readings Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!¡Cristo ha resucitado!  ¡Él ha resucitado!  ¡Aleluya! If anyone’s counting, this has been a very long Mass so far.  And I don’t mean just the blessing of the fire and the candle, the singing of the Exsultet, and the rather extended Liturgy of the Word that…