Most Recent Posts
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The Church’s Mission Statement
Monday in the 1st Week of Advent: Romans 10:9-18, Matthew 4:18-22. What an interesting start to Advent! Yesterday, Christ admonished us, “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.” This should be a familiar refrain, a reminder that Advent is a time of waiting for both the Incarnation of Christ…
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For What are we Waiting?
Sunday in the 1st Week of Advent: Isaiah 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7, 1 Corinthians 1:3-9, Mark 13:33-37. Advent is upon us, but what does that mean, practically speaking? The Church asks us to pare back distractions and excesses as we wait for the birth of Christ. These short days and long nights of winter are supposed…
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What is there about His Word?
Tuesday of the 22nd Week in Ordinary Time: 1 Corinthians 2:10b-16, Luke 4:31-37 Today’s readings present St. Paul’s contrast of spiritual living and worldly living to the early Christian community in Corinth as well as Christ’s healing of a possessed man in Capernaum. Both readings invite us to consider the invisible world of the Spirit…
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Fret Not, the Work is Glorious
Wednesday in the 20th Week of Ordinary Time: Ezekiel 34:1-11, Matthew 20-1-16. Today’s gospel reading presents us with the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard. It seems to me that the heart of this reading and the Old Testament reading from Ezekiel is the question of the work we do in this world. It…
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The Sadness of Possessions
Monday and Tuesday in the 20th Week of Ordinary Time: Ezekiel 28:1-10, Matthew 19:16-30. The end of Chapter 19 in the Gospel of St. Matthew must really stick in the craw of those who believe in the so-called prosperity gospel. This predominantly evangelical belief system is a type of vending machine theology: if you strictly…
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Laborers for the Harvest
Thursday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time: Hosea 11:1-4, 8e-9, Matthew 10:7-15. All week, we are reading St. Matthew’s account of the great sending of the Apostles, the “Mission of the Twelve.” Today’s readings delve into the heart of the matter: these chosen 12, symbolic of the new tribes of the nation, are to institute a…
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Espousal to Christ
Monday in the 14th Week of Ordinary Time: Hosea 2:16, 17c-18, 21-22, Matthew 9:18-26. Today’s readings broach a subject dear to the heart of the Church: the espousal of the Church to Christ, her Bridegroom. Perhaps it’s my gender, perhaps the era in which I grew up, but this image never sat squarely with me.…
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What God Does with His Omnipotence
Tuesday in the 13th Week of Ordinary Time: Amos 3:1-8, 4:11-12, Matthew 8:23-27. The definition of God — really any god in any tradition — contains within it an amount of power far beyond human abilities. In Greek mythology, Hermes has the power of speed so unimaginably fast that he acts as the messenger of…