The Sunday Gospel Wis 2:12, 17-20 Ps 54:3-4, 5, 6 and 8 Jas 3:16—4:3 Mk 9:30-37 The lives of the saints reveal the many trials and persecutions that the holiest men and women encounter from within or from outside the Church. We learn that some saints who founded religious orders were even rejected by the…

One of the great religious stories in history is the biblical story of the Exodus, the story of a people being set free from slavery, passing miraculously through the Red Sea, and finding themselves standing in freedom, on a new shore. Most of us are familiar with this story. A nation of people, Israel, was…

The Sunday Gospel Is 50:5-9a Ps 116:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9 Jas 2:14-18 Mk 8:27-35 I can still remember the priest who taught us Scripture during diaconate formation talking about the passage from the Gospel that we hear this Sunday, and then asking us what seemed an irrelevant question. “Where does it come in?” he asked…

Inside each of us, beyond what we can picture clearly, express in words, or even feel distinctly, we have a dark memory of having once been touched and caressed by hands far gentler than our own. That caress has left a permanent mark, an imprint of a love so tender and deep that its memory…

The Sunday Gospel Dt 4:1-2, 6-8 Ps 15:2-5 Jas 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27 Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 Are we doers? The letter from James this Sunday lays it all on the line and reminds us of what truly matters. Think showing up at church, saying prayers and dropping an envelope in the collection basket is enough?…

Some years ago, an op-ed piece appeared in the New York Times by Frank Bruni, entitled The Wages of Celibacy. The column, while provocative, was fair. Mostly he asked a lot of hard, necessary questions. Looking at the various sexual scandals that have plagued the Roman Catholic priesthood in the past years, Bruni suggested that…

The Sunday Gospel Jos 24: 1-2a, 15-17, 18b Ps 34: 2-3, 16-21 Eph 5:21-32 or 5:2a, 25-32 Jn 6: 60-69 When was the last time you had the opportunity to give public witness to Christian faith? Perhaps it was in the presence of co-workers or neighbours, or maybe among friends and family. Whenever we witness…

I teach Spirituality at the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas. Fifteen years ago, we began offering a PhD in Spirituality. In the fifteen years since we have had doctoral students from many different Christian denominations – Mainline Protestants, Evangelicals, Episcopalians/Anglicans, and Roman Catholics. During those fifteen years we have not had a…

The Sunday Gospel Prv 9:1-6 Ps 34:2-7 Eph 5:15-20 Jn 6:51-58 This Gospel puts me in a New York state of mind. Encountering this Sunday’s passage from John’s Gospel, I can’t help but think back to a stretch of West 31st Street in New York City where, not far from Madison Square Garden, you can…

In a section of her poem The Leaf and the Cloud, Mary Oliver describes her feelings as she stands by the gravesite of her father and mother. She reflects on how both their virtues and faults influenced her life. Then she ends the reflection with these words: I give them – one, two, three, four…