Deacon Greg Kandra April 30, 2023, Fourth Sunday of Easter Acts 2:14a, 36-41 Ps 23: 1-3a, 3b4, 5, 6 1 Pt 2:20b-25 Jn 10:1-10 Most of us would probably admit: we don’t know a lot of shepherds. (Where I live, in Queens, New York, they are pretty scarce.) But I met one a few…
In the musical Les Miserables, there’s a particularly haunting song, sung by a dying woman (Fontine) who has been crushed by virtually every unfairness that life can deal a person. Abandoned by her husband, sexually harassed by her employer, caught in abject poverty, physically ill and dying, even as her main anxiety is about what…
Jem Sullivan April 23, 2023 Third Sunday of Easter Acts 2:14, 22-33 Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11 I Peter 1:17-21 Luke 24:13-35 Think of a memorable meal you had recently, or in the past. Perhaps it was a casual family gathering or a formal occasion. It may have been in a secluded place…
After Jesus rose from the dead, his first appearances were to women. Why? One obvious reason might be that it was women who followed him to his death on Good Friday, while the men largely abandoned him. As well, it was women, not men, who set off for his tomb on Easter morning, hoping to…
Deacon Greg Kandra The Sunday Gospel April 16, 2023 2nd Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday) Acts 2:42-47 Psalm 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24 I Peter 1:3-9 John 20:19-31 This Sunday gives us one of my favourite Gospel readings — a story of doubt that turns into belief, of stubbornness that gives way to assent and conversion.…
The Earth was dark twice. Once at the original creation before God first created light. But later there was an even deeper darkness, on Good Friday, between the sixth and ninth hour, when we were crucifying God, and as Jesus dying on the cross cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!”.…
Jem Sullivan The discovery of the empty tomb is the biblical record of the historical event: Jesus’ bodily resurrection. No witnesses saw Jesus as he arose from the dead. But what they did see was Jesus’ passion, crucifixion, and the empty tomb. So, how did the disciples come to believe that God raised Jesus…
“We only live, only suspire, consumed by either fire or fire.” T.S. Eliot wrote those words and, with them, suggests that our choice in this life is not between calm and storm, but between two kinds of storms. He is right, of course, but sometimes it is good to vary the metaphor: We live in…
“Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” These words of Jesus apply not just to those who are ordained to ministry and administer the Sacrament of Reconciliation, but to everyone inside the body of Christ. All of us have the power…
The Sunday Gospel Blessed is the parish which has a catechumen on the final stages of the journey to Baptism at Easter. This Sunday’s Gospel, the raising of Lazarus from the dead, is the third story from John’s Gospel, chosen to throw light on the meaning of Baptism. First, at the well in Samaria, Jesus…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser