To Follow Jesus is to Stop and Ask What is Needed
Throughout the gospels people come to Jesus asking for healing for themselves and others, so why is it that in today’s gospel a blind man is scolded and told to be quiet when he calls out to Jesus?
One of the things that stands out to me about this healing story is that the man in need of healing is identified both …
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“You shouldn’t have to suffer … You don’t know that that’s what’s going to happen. … You have to stay positive! … There must be something you can do to change it. … Have you thought of … I think you should try … Why don’t you talk to …”
I don’t know what Peter’s words were, when he was rebuking Jesus for talking about his impending death. I imagine that they may have …
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Today is the feast of the Holy Trinity, the feast that marks one of the most unique beliefs of Christian faith, separating Christianity from other world religions. We believe in one God in three persons. We believe in a God who is defined by relationship. 1 John states that “God is love.” God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the perfect love that unites them in such a way that nothing is done by one person of the …
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The Miracle of Ordinary Time
Today is the second Sunday in ordinary time. For much of my life I’ve thought of ordinary time as the “boring time” in the church year, the space holder between the important events. Today I am struck by the fact that ordinary time is the time of infinite possibility. Ordinary time is the time immediately after the creation, the birth, the resurrection, the pouring out of the Spirit. Ordinary time is …
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Wisdom and Choice
There are three prayers that I have known for as long as I can remember. “Now I lay me down to sleep …” “Our Father …” and … the Serenity prayer. My grandmother had a plaque hanging by her kitchen sink, that I liked to ask people to read: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to …
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Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth!Sing the glory of his name;Give to him glorious praise.Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds.”
Three years ago, most of us dreamed of this past week. We didn’t know when it would come, but we thought that when it did, we would all be out dancing in the streets. We expected to be living the words of today’s Psalm as we shouted thanks and sang praises …
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Jesus’ disciples asked, “who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?’ I hear some variation on this question almost every week in the hospital. “What did I do to deserve this?’ ‘Why are we being punished?” “What should I have done differently?” When bad things happen, most of us look for something that will make life seem fair and, perhaps even more important, predictable. We want to be able to see what is coming so …
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“The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.” These words from today’s gospel touched something deep within me. Recently I have felt like many of us are people sitting in darkness. We are tired and worn and it is often easier to see what is getting worse than it is to see what is getting better. Day after day the news is full of stories of deterioration, of systems we depend on that are hovering near …
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Violence seems to be everywhere. The war in Ukraine continues; almost 8 million refugees have fled the country since February of this year. The war in Yemen is in its eighth year, creating one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. In Canada, the number of women murdered by a partner or ex-partner has increased every year over the past 5 years reaching a rate of 1 murder every 2 days. Hate crimes in Canada have increased 72% over the past two years …
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Last week, as part of my own preparation for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, I read the novel Indian Horse, by Richard Wagamese. I have been thinking about the multigenerational harm that was done in the name of our faith by those who represented our Church. Even as I was growing up in a Catholic community that fostered my sense of self-worth and unconditional love, Indigenous children were experiencing a Catholicism that stripped them of dignity and …
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