Tuesday in the Octave of Easter … She thought it was the gardener and said to him, “Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni…” Many things could be said about this […]

Tuesday of Holy Week Reclining at table with his disciples, Jesus was deeply troubled and testified, “Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” We can well imagine how shocking this statement must have been to the disciples. Luke follows it up with the observation, “They began to debate among themselves […]

Moses made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. This is perhaps the strangest story in the Old Testament. The idea that looking at a snake’s image would prevent one from dying from snakebite strikes one […]

Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. The place where this miracle took place is quite certain. It is only a ruin today but is located just north of the Temple Mount, about 50 meters outside what is now known as Saint Stephen’s or […]

Peter approached Jesus and asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.” This familiar statement is perhaps the most difficult of Jesus’ teachings for people to practice. Forgiveness does not come […]

… Cease doing evil; learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow. In this Old Testament passage, we have a stark reminder that God does not want us simply to do no wrong; God wants us to do what is right and have the same […]

Tuesday of the First Week of Lent Give us this day our daily bread… This line in the Our Father should be especially meaningful for those of us who have a eucharistic spirituality. In such a short prayer, is it not strange that we should have such a repetition as this day and daily? The […]

[Jesus] said to them, “Do you still not understand?” Many wonder what the disciples were supposed to understand. Jesus had just fed crowds on both sides of the Lake of Gennesaret with a few loaves and fish. On the Jewish side, there were twelve baskets left over; on the Gentile side, seven. This seven corresponds […]

God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them. We have begun reading the creation story from Genesis this week; today, it reaches its climax with the creation of the human race. The passage also tells us that we are tasked with having “dominion over […]

Feast of the Presentation of the Lord Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. Luke’s prologue is densely theological and prepares us from what will enfold in the entire gospel story. The Feast of the Presentation is an example of that. It is a beautiful tableau: two young […]