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Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, Virgin
Today’s readingsMass for the school children. Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, who was called “Mother Cabrini” during her life, was a humble woman of great faith and fortitude. Because of poor health, she was refused entrance to the Daughters of the Sacred Heart, the religious community that had educated her. But in 1880, along with seven other young…
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The Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome
Today’s readings Today we celebrate the feast of the dedication of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome. Most people think of St. Peter’s Basilica as the pope’s church, but that’s not completely true. As the Bishop of Rome, his Cathedral Church is the Lateran Basilica, once dedicated to our Savior, but now named for Saint…
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The Thirty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings So here’s one of those occasions when we have what seems to be a pretty odd parable in the Gospel reading. It’s a story that challenges our notion of who Jesus is and what he was about – it almost seems in this story that he’s being “un-Jesus-like” in the story. But hang on to…
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Remembrance Mass for the Souls of All the Faithful Departed
Tonight, we have come together to do what the writer of the books of Maccabees insist is a holy and pious thing: to pray for the souls of the dead. We have come together also to do what the Liturgy of the Rite of Christian Burial tells us to do: to pray also for ourselves. We gather…
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Tuesday of the Thirty-first Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings Go out to the highways and hedgerowsand make people come in that my home may be filled. Way back on Friday, we began hearing the story from Saint Luke’s gospel about the time Jesus was invited to a dinner at the home of one of the leading Pharisees. At that time, Jesus performed a…
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The Solemnity of All Saints
Today’s readings I think we all bristle, unfortunately, at the idea of being a saint. Saints are those super-holy folks who are depicted in artwork and glorified in amazing stories. We are just ordinary people who struggle with our holiness, at best. But today, the Church is asking us to think about saints in a broader way. Yes, we…
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Friday of the Thirtieth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings Jesus was always on the lookout for people who needed healing. The ones we hear about in the Gospel stories, like the one we just heard today, were needs for physical healing, sure, but the stories also tell us about the need for spiritual healing. Sometimes our bodies are sick, but sometimes our souls are…
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Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings The injunction for wives to be submissive to their husbands, given in our first reading, certainly offends our modern ears. That’s just not the kind of thing we say in this society, at least not in these days. Yet this was the norm in the society in which Saint Paul ministered. So that command would hardly…
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The Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings Mike was one of my favorite people in the world. He owned the service station where my family had, and still has, our cars repaired and maintained ever since we first moved out to the suburbs, almost forty years ago now. Dad used to joke that with all the cars we brought in there over…
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Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings People often don’t really get who Jesus was and what he came to do. So many people think it’s the “kumbaya” kind of love and harmony. They would assert that Jesus was all about being peaceful and accepting. But saying that is really misunderstanding Jesus and who he was and what he came to accomplish. Because…
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