3rd Sunday of Advent Today is Gaudete (or Rejoice) Sunday, the halfway point leading up to celebrating the Christ child’s birth. Paul tells us today in the 2nd reading that a Christian is a person who always rejoices, prays without ceasing, gives thanks in all circumstances, and refrains from every kind of evil…why? So that […]

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Lord, open the door for us! I do not know you. Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour (Matthew 25:11-13). Matthew reconstructs the original parable of Jesus to emphasize to his new Christian community of the 1st century the need to be prepared at all […]

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time Everything is ready: come to the feast! To dismiss out of hand the king’s invitation to his son’s wedding banquet was the biggest mistake the first invitees ever made. On the other hand, such a surprising invitation so lifted up the spirits of the downtrodden street people that they jumped […]

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time The African-American spiritual we sing or hear sung on Good Friday, Were you there when they crucified my Lord, inevitably evokes within my soul, and hopefully in yours, the honest response, Yes, I was there! We were all there! While the mind, heart and body of Jesus was agonizingly absorbing […]

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time Today, our church tells us the story of two fear-filled men, Elijah and Peter, whose lives are threatened by imminent death, but spared by the compassion of an understanding God. Elijah flees for his life to Mount Horeb (Sinai), where God passes by and in a tiny, whispering voice announces […]

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time Speaking in parables to the crowds who sought him, Jesus tried to clarify the meaning of the kingdom of heaven he so often talked about. This kingdom is not a geographical location, but rather a friendship with the living God, a reality likened to an immense treasure or a precious […]

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ The Covid-19 pandemic closed the doors of Catholic churches the world over during Holy Week this year. It prohibited the celebration of Holy Thursday, the remembrance of the institution of the Eucharist, the center and summit of our faith. However, today those locked doors are thrown open, […]

5th Sunday of Easter Jesus was a carpenter like his father, Joseph. He worked with a saw and a hammer, wood, and stone. He could build anything, even the Kingdom of heaven or a universal church. Yet, the first companions he called were fishermen, not building contractors. Jesus addressed Peter as the rock foundation of […]

Easter—Resurrection of the Lord Happy Easter! The light of Christ has come into the world, alleluia! Together with the unexplainable resurrection of Jesus, the Paschal Mystery is now complete and every person who has not seen but does believe is promised a like resurrection and eternal happiness with the triune God forever in his mystical […]

2nd Sunday of Lent Jesus invited Peter, James, and John to pray with him on Mount Tabor; they would never forget how awesome that day was. Six days earlier, they heard Jesus admit that he was the long-awaited messiah and the son of the living God. They heard Jesus promise to build his church on […]