The Sunday Gospel “The Word of God came to John son of Zechariah, in the wilderness.” I really love Advent. Each season of the liturgical year has its own rich spirituality, but I think Advent has the message that is most relevant at the moment, at least in the state of the Church in Western…
Our greatest strength is often our greatest weakness. Sensitivity is a gift, but as any sensitive person will tell you, that gift can be a mixed blessing. Sometimes a thick, calloused skin can save you from a lot of suffering, particularly from heartache. The popular spiritual writer Henri Nouwen was a highly sensitive person. That…
The Sunday Gospel T he First Sunday of Advent marks the beginning of the liturgical year. The Gospel of the day is about the end of time (Luke 21:25-28.34). It might seem odd that Advent begins, not with preparation for the coming of Christ at Christmas, but his coming for us at the end of…
I was raised in a generation that taught that God gave each of us a vocation to live out. In the religious ethos of that time, particularly in Catholic spirituality, we believed that we were put on this earth with a divine plan for us, that God gave us each a special vocation to live…
The Sunday Gospel This is the last Sunday of the liturgical year when we celebrate Jesus Christ, the Universal King. The end of the year anticipates the end of time when “the Kingdom of God will come in all its fullness. Then the just will reign with Jesus Christ for ever, glorified in body and soul,…
In a recent book, Living Between Worlds, James Hollis offers a piece of wit that carries more depth than is first evident. A therapist says to a client, “I cannot solve your problem, but I can give you a more compelling story for your misery”. That’s more than a wisecrack. Whether we feel good or…
The Sunday Gospel November is the month when we remember those who have died and we pray for the souls in purgatory. Purgatory is not specifically mentioned in the Bible but the doctrine of purgatory is a beautiful development which holds in unity two ideas that might appear to be contradictory. The doctrine of God’s…
“To tell someone, with fullness of heart, ‘I love you’, is virtually the same as saying, ‘You shall never die.’ Twentieth century philosopher Gabriel Marcel wrote those words and they echo words written 500 years earlier by Blessed Magdalen Panattieri, a Dominican Tertiary, who wrote to a friend, “I could not be happy in heaven…
The Sunday Gospel The first reading and Gospel today (Mark 12:38-44) feature poor widows who gave all they had. The evangelist Mark had a habit of following the teaching of Jesus with the example of some person who embodies or exemplifies that lesson. Last Sunday we heard the answer of Jesus to the question of what was…
“No man is an island.” John Donne wrote those words four centuries ago and they are as true now as they were then, except we don’t believe them anymore. Today more and more of us are beginning to define our nuclear families and our carefully chosen circle of friends precisely as a self-sufficient island, and…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser