Sometimes we are the most helpful and life-giving at the very times when we are most helpless. We’ve all been there. We’re at a funeral and there’s nothing to say that will ease the heartache of someone who has lost a loved one. We feel awkward and helpless. We’d like to say or do something,…
Jem Sullivan Prv 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31 Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5 1 Thes 5:1-6 Mt 25:14-30 Mt 25:14-15, 19-21 (alternative) As we gather around the Thanksgiving table with family and friends, hearts and minds fill with gratitude to God and our loved ones. We may not realise it but in giving thanks to God…
Gilbert K. Chesterton once stated that Christianity is the only democracy where even the dead get to vote. In light of that, I share two stories. A psychologist at a conference I once attended shared this story. A woman came to see him in considerable distress. Her disquiet had to do with her last conversation…
Deacon Greg Kandra Wis 6:12-16 Ps 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8 1 Thes 4:13-18 1 Thes 4:13-14 (alternate) Mt 25:1-13 It’s that time of year again. In much of the country, the leaves are falling, nights are lengthening, frost is appearing on the ground — and the readings at Sunday Mass are turning once more to talk of…
Words give us meaning. We can’t make or remake reality, but the words we choose to name our reality can lift us out of the humdrum of everyday experience.
A good teacher can influence a student in profound ways. Think back to a teacher who may have shaped or transformed the direction of your life.
Someone once quipped that we spend the first half of our lives struggling with the sixth commandment – Thou shalt not commit adultery – and the second half of our lives struggling with the fifth commandment – Thou shalt not kill! There’s a truth here worth examining. In the Catholicism I was raised there was…
Deacon Greg Kandra Ex 22:20-26 Ps 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51 1 Thes 1:5c-10 Mt 22:34-40 Anyone who has spent time watching reruns of Law and Order knows the first rule of being a good witness in a courtroom: Never answer a question that you haven’t been asked. Stay on point. Don’t elaborate. Keep it…
There are different ways of being excluded in life. Earlier this year, one of my older brothers died. By every indication he had lived an exemplary life, one lived mainly for others. He died much loved by everyone who knew him. His was a life lived for family, Church, community and friends. Giving the homily…
Jem Sullivan 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time Is 45:1, 4-6 Ps 96:1, 3, 4-5, 7-8, 9-10 1 Thes 1:1-5b Mt 22:15-21 “I am the Lord, there is no other,” the prophet Isaiah tells us in simple, evocative words. God’s power is universal, loving, and mysterious. And all earthly power comes from God, as…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser