Today’s readings Today’s first reading always fascinates me. Paul and Silas are in a terrible situation, not for the first or last time, I might add. But just look at how their vibrant faith allows God to do things in and through them that are nothing short of miraculous. First, there’s the earthquake that brings… Continue reading Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter
Tag: faith
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… Continue reading Thursday of the Fifth Week of Easter (Religious Education and Confirmation Program Closing Mass)
Saturday of the Third Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings Faith is that moment in our walk with the Lord when we have to put our money where our mouth is. Faith says that we believe that Jesus is who he says he is, and that who he says he is has a profound impact on our life. It’s easy to have faith… Continue reading Saturday of the Third Week of Ordinary Time
The Thirty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings I’ve often heard stories of those who grew up in the great depression. Many years later, they still had deeply engrained in them the scrupulous care for everything they have that was etched into their very being during that horrible time in our history. They spent a lifetime wasting nothing, which was a good thing,… Continue reading The Thirty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time
The Twenty-ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time – Homecoming Mass for Benedictine University
Today’s readings Well, I would like to welcome all of you home to Benedictine University for Homecoming 2020. Except, of course, that we aren’t at our “home”: we are celebrating this Mass at my parish, Saint Mary Immaculate in Plainfield, Illinois, a little over twenty miles south and west of the Lisle campus of Benedictine. And, most… Continue reading The Twenty-ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time – Homecoming Mass for Benedictine University
The Twenty-fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings I wonder if you find this Gospel parable a little aggravating. I have heard it many times now, and I certainly have bristled with aggravation on occasion when I’ve heard it. And, as I often say, it’s good when the Gospel gets us a little riled up, because that means God is doing something in… Continue reading The Twenty-fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time
The Twenty-first Sunday of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings One of my jobs before I went to seminary was in the sales department of a computer supply company. In that job, they taught us that one of the first good rules of sales was never to ask a question to which you didn’t already know the answer. I think teachers get taught that principle… Continue reading The Twenty-first Sunday of Ordinary Time
The Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings Today’s Gospel is a very interesting one. And I say that in the sense that it is often the kind of Gospel reading that gets people riled up. Because we can probably agree that this vignette portrays Jesus in a rather unflattering light. Was he really going to snub this poor woman’s request? Was he really going… Continue reading The Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Friday of the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings This morning’s Gospel passage is the explanation of the parable of the seed and the sower, which we heard on Wednesday morning (and, for that matter, two Sundays ago). What we quickly find out is that the parable is all about us. Clearly the ideal is the good soil which produces much fruit, and just… Continue reading Friday of the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time
The Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Todays’ readings I’m not very good at it, and I don’t do it much any more, but I used to help plant a family garden. I don’t have much of a green thumb, and I’m short on patience for that kind of thing, so for me it just doesn’t work out very well. But I’m grateful for… Continue reading The Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time