Ambassadors for christ

†A reflection on how the point of fasting has changed, thanks to Christ’s saving act of sacrifice.

Starting the Great Fast

†A reflection on why Lent is called “The Great Fast” in Eastern Churches and how we can prioritize being spiritual beings.

Who Said Catholics Aren’t Pro-Choice?

†A reflection on the choice between a blessing and a curse, but re-framed by Jesus: will you deny yourself or not?

Doughnuts and Kenosis: Our Come-to-Jesus Moment

†A reflection on how kenosis is denying yourself as Jesus did, and it is the proper way to understand divine love. But what happens to us, to our personalities?

Fasting for What?

†A reflection on how sincerity is a key component of fasting.

The Spirit of Fasting

†A reflection on how the spirit of fasting is to fulfill our purpose within the Mystical Body of Christ and become better spiritual beings.

On Being Chosen

†A reflection on how much continuity there is between Old and New Testaments, and also how Christ expands the scope of who is “chosen”.

Embracing God’s Offer

†A reflection on the true Fatherhood of God, which offers each of us a call to be with him, and in this unrestricted love, we learn the true meaning of justice.

Year A

Getting to Know the Tempter

†A deep-dive on the Genesis story and the three temptations of Christ.

Year B

The Power of Baptism

†A reflection on how Lent is a time of preparation for Catholic catechumen, and how St. Mark’s telling of the Baptism of Christ is a powerful reminder of how our Church is impelled in and through the Holy Spirit.

Judgments will be based on Acts of Love

†A reflection on living out the command to love all, fusing a fear of God with the perfect love He is.

The Life-Giving Word

†A reflection on the generative, active Word of God, which the Father promises, “It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.”

The Fertile Word and Forgiveness

†Agricultural metaphors help us understand that God’s Word is meant to be food for us – both in scripture and the Eucharist. True forgiveness means remembering that we are the fruit of God’s Word.

Woe to (and Deliverance for) the Faithless Generation

†A reflection on how God’s Word and Wisdom were with Jonah and Solomon, but Jesus is greater than that because he is a sign of how conversion can save us for everlasting life.

Something Greater is Here

†Do we interpret all of history through Christ or do we think that he’s just one voice among many holy voices? A recapitulation of the reflection on the left.

Esther: Model of How to Petition the Father

†A reflection on how we might “ask and you shall receive” if we do so in the model of Esther, and with God’s will in mind.

Asking for God’s Help

†A reflection on how we must place Jesus’s words about asking and receiving within the broader context of the Sermon on the Mount to truly understand them.

Salvation Is Based on Our Core Person

†A reflection on how salvation is not a weighing of sins vs. virtues, but an accounting of how completely our hearts have turned toward God and done his will.

The Problem with Little Sins

†A reflection on how venial sins are a refusal to accept a precious grace offered by God, and how we can misperceive Jesus’s teaching about the spirit of the Law.

The Difficult New Covenant of Love

†A reflection on how God changed his covenant with humanity as he prepared them for his coming in full closeness; and how our New Covenant can be difficult to fully comprehend because he is so close to us.

Pray for your Persecutors

†A reflection on how the command to be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect is impossible without turning to our spiritual nature, prayer, and acceptance of God’s grace.

Year A

The Transfiguration Reveals Truth “According to His Own Design”

†A reflection on God’s covenants, and how Christ is on both sides of the New Covenant: both the gift and our requirement.

Year B

A Glimpse of Heaven

†A reflection on how God asks us to be “all in” when it comes to our faithfulness, and how the Transfiguration bolstered the faith of the Church when it needed it.

The Examined Self Before God

†A reflection on how Christ tells us to carry divine love in our hearts as we live and love others, and, in return, divine love will be given to us for eternity.

The Flipside of Feeling Bad

†A reflection on how we can flip the coin from focusing on humiliation and penance to forgiveness and generosity.

Led by the Master

†A reflection on humility, with examples from the Desert Fathers.

Set Things Right

†”Come now, let us set things right, says the LORD,” could be a saying to guide us through all of Lent – alongside Jesus’s reminder that there is only one Master: the Christ.

The Chalice of Persecution and the Ransom for Many

†A reflection on how Jesus Christ’s life and suffering enact a new status for humanity, and how his teachings about how to live are a key to dwelling in the Kingdom he establishes, not just a good “code of conduct”.

Worm of the Soul

†Jealousy pushed the Jews to torment the Prophet Jeremiah and to crucify Christ. Jealousy also acts like a worm in our souls in varied ways through our lives – learn from St. Cyprian and Christ in this reflection.

Beware the Enchantments of the World

†A reflection on how the rich man in Jesus’s parable is “bad fruit” that reveals a bad tree, but what about poor, suffering Lazarus? St. Therèse of Lisieux helps us appreciate Christ while suffering.

Tree Beside Running Waters

†A recapitulation of the reflection on the left.

Tend to the Good Fruit of the Vineyard

†A reflection on the Parable of the Wicked Tenants, and how we Christians are the new tenants – what kind of fruit will the landlord find when he returns?

Rejoice for the Pardon of the Prodigal

†A deep dive on the Parable of the Prodigal Son. The father in the parable gave his life (in the original Greek) in response to the demand for his portion of the inheritance. We are asked to focus on our return (reditus) to God through this parable.

Year A

If You Knew the Gift

†A reflection on the amazing and spiritually dense encounter with the Samaritan Woman at the Well, and how she is the archetype of the sinner who converts in honesty, is baptized in water of the Spirit, and enjoys an honest and blessed existence close to God. 

Year B

The Radicality of the New Covenant

†A reflection on how Jesus Christ is the new Temple, transforming a type of ritual worship centered on a building into a true communion with God that provides real spiritual food.

A Prophet in his Own Land

†A reflection on Elisha prefiguring Christ. God meets us in our reality of linear time through a progressive revelation of himself, yet at every stage of revelation, he and his message are fully there.

The Unexpectedly Common

†A reflection on how we have to humble ourselves before God, embrace our baptism and rebirth, and see that common, unexpected person as likely even more chosen than we are.

Mercy is the Master Principle

†A reflection on how mercy is not only the core of God’s love, but it is expected that we pour forth mercy just as our Father does.

Forgiveness is Mercy in Action

†A reflection on the phrase “fear of God” as well as mercy being at the heart of our faith and actions.

Our Vocation to Teach the Word of God

†A reflection on why Jesus tells us to teach his Word, and how the Word is the fullness of communication.

†A reflection on Jesus’ words: “whoever does not gather with me scatters,” and how the root of the Greek word is the same as scorpion.

Agape Has Only One Source: God

†A reflection on the greatest commandment, and how the love we are called to give our neighbor, agape, comes from God first. This is why we must renew ourselves through the Eucharist to be true Christians.

Internal Transformation

†A reflection on the internal transformation God promises when we receive his love and pass it along to our neighbor: you shall blossom like the vine!

As Certain As the Dawn

†A reflection on how to pray correctly, putting Jesus first, and reading ourselves with the conviction that he will come again, as certain as the dawn.

The Jesus Prayer

†Simliar to the reflection on the left, a consideration of how the Jesus Prayer is a powerful way to pray correctly, like the tax collector in today’s gospel reading.

Year A

Seeing with the Light of the Lord

†A reflection on light and darkness, and how our Baptism cures us of spiritual blindness while at the same time sending us to bring Christ to others. 

Year B

Lifted Like the Serpent

†Just as the Jews’ suffering from being bitten by serpents is ameliorated by gazing at that exposed suffering on a pole, our suffering from sin in this life is ameliorated by gazing on the Lord’s suffering on the Cross, done for our sakes.

Living in the Promise

†A reflection on being OK with waiting, transitions and travel, because we are a people “on the Way.”

New Heavens and a New Earth

†A reflection on how we fail to grasp the newness of our beings, once divinity has come to dwell among us. The Incarnation ushers in an entirely new creation.

Water from the Temple

†A deep dive on Ezekiel’s temple vision and how Jesus establishes himself as the new temple and Lord of the Sabbath.

From Temple to Living Water

†A reflection on how the River of Life coming from the Temple is Christ, and flows outward; this is the configuration of our Church, too, as the Bride of Christ.

Consubstantial Yet a Different Person

†A reflection on the different Persons of the Trinity who are in reality united, given to us by St. Augustine: like a flame and the light it emanates, the Father and the Son are different, but cannot be separated.

†A reflection on God’s impassible and unchangeable nature – a purifying fire that the good experience as a warm embrace and the evil experience as unquenchable, burning wrath.

Forgiving Our Great Affront

†A reflection on those who reject God – Aaron, the Pharisees, and us. A reminder that your testimony to the Truth of God and Jesus Christ is an essential element of your salvation.

Hung Up on our Notions of Jesus the Man

†A reflection on how overly rational, historical perspectives on Jesus completely lose track of who he is, especially the fact that he is part of the Holy Trinity.

Evil Plots in Empty Hearts

†A reflection on malice, which destroys those in its grasp.

The Tree in its Vigor

†A reflection on being granted the free will to choose the good tree in its vigor (Christ) or reject it.

Year A

See the Glory of God

†A re-reading of the resurrection of Lazarus, seeing in it a great lesson in helping us not be held under the thrall of death, to let God’s rejection of death agitate within us, like it does with Christ. 

Year B

Adultery in the Heart

†A reflection on how we envision adultery incorrectly: the primary relationship we should be concerned about is our covenant with God – our marriage covenant with our spouse is important, but a lesser manifestation.

†A reflection on the ugly vice of lust, and then the lesson from the gospel reading, which is not so much about forgiveness as it is about the sanctity of our spiritual fidelity with God.

Bridging Salvation History with a Serpent

†Just as the Jews’ suffering from being bitten by serpents is ameliorated by gazing at that exposed suffering on a pole, our suffering from sin in this life is ameliorated by gazing on the Lord’s suffering on the Cross, done for our sakes.

The Limits of Language

†Throughout Scripture, God is speaking to us plainly, using a divine frequency. We just have to tune into that frequency by wanting to get to know Him.

Slaves of Sin

†A reflection on how pride and stubbornness in the face of God’s Truth reduce us to an animal-like state of slavery to sin.

The Dense Life

†A reflection on the shallow definition of freedom that we accept, especially in America, and how this contrasts against the density of life and meaning offered to us by Christ, the Truth who sets us free from slavery to sin.

†A deep dive on today’s gospel, looking at the original Greek and Hebrew texts, revealing that Jesus is constantly telling us, “The truth is here, I am teaching it to you.“

The Irrefutable Logic of the Logos

†A reflection on how overly rational, historical perspectives on Jesus completely lose track of who he is, especially the fact that he is part of the Holy Trinity.

Hotheads and Zealots

†A reflection on how the Pharisees and those hotheads calling Jesus a blasphemer are simply not of God the Father. The Word of God can’t be stoppered and Jesus can’t be arrested before his time.

False Utilitarian Morality

†A debunking of Caiaphas’s logical fallacy of limited choice, presented as a moral choice, and discussion of what the proper Christian response to the “Trolley Problem” might be.

The Unwitting Prophet Caiaphas

†A reflection on how Caiaphas operates according to the arithmetic of death and loss; and how this perspective goes hand-in-hand with twisting God’s word to political ends.

Year A

Every Knee Should Bend

†A reflection on the meaning of palm leaves and the shout “Hosanna!” as well as how Jesus both receives glory, then empties himself to receive a greater glory. 

Year B

From Palms to Passion

†A reflection on several details in the Passion narrative: the broken alabaster jar, the man fleeing the garden but leaving his linen loincloth, the crown of thorns, Pilate’s amazement, and more.

How to Love God with All Your Being

†A reflection on the picture of perfect Christian relationship at the house of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus; and how the costly spikenard is the faith that must be poured out upon Christ’s Body, the Church.

Master of Destiny

†Christ’s glorification and the glorification of God resides not in the smiting of the offenders but in the patient ability to love in the face of all the hate and injustice that can be mustered.

The Sadness of Losing Sheep

†A lightly edited version of the reflection on the left.

Courage and Cowardice

†A reflection that Jesus truly hoped to save Judas and keep him from committing this betrayal, but Judas had already given himself over to Satan, and committed this betrayal of his own free will.

Why is Judas Part of the Plan?

†A reflection on the psychology of betrayal, the wisdom St. Gregory the Great sheds on the Judas story, and how small sins chip away at a soul’s dignity and pervert one’s humanity to such an extent that nothing matters anymore as much as self-centeredness.

†A reflection on the density of the action at the Last Supper. Christ teaches humility as well as the need for forgiveness when he washes the feet of his Apostles.

The Establishment of the Sacraments

†A reorganized and expanded version of the reflection on the left. From the Eucharist to Confession to the Holy Priesthood, Jesus accomplishes so much on Holy Thursday as he serves the Apostles and establishes the Church

What is Truth?

†A reflection on how we believe in a single, absolute Truth, which came down to earth in the form of Jesus Christ. We must deny moral relativism in all its forms.

Infinite Value

†A reflection on Christ’s sacrifice with help from St. John Chrysostom and Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, OP.

The Precious Blood

†Reflection on the Most Precious Blood by St. John Chrysostom and on the Harrowing of Hell by Bishop Melito of Sardis.

The Empty Tomb

†Reflection on the empty tomb, and how God’s hiddenness is nevertheless an ordered absence, prompting us to search for him.