“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
It has been mentioned to me by wife on more than one occasion that she may need to point out a task that needs to be done more than once to get any results. Guilty as charged in some instances. If I am being honest, the tasks I don’t tackle right away are the ones I either don’t want to do, or don’t feel I can ...
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I’ve had the good fortune to make two pilgrimages to the Holy Land. My advice, first to myself and then to those traveling with me, was the same both times– honor the event not so much the place. For example, we will never know, with absolute certainty, the exact spot where Jesus was born. That’s not important. What’s important is the event, the inbreaking of God into our world in human flesh. It makes no difference whether Jesus was born ...
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Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. After forty days (a number indicating preparation in the Bible) Jesus ascended into Heaven, leaving the mission of the church under the care of the Apostles, and promising to send the Holy Spirit as their guide on Pentecost (which we will celebrate next Sunday). I remember as a very young girl, picturing Jesus ascending into the clouds and I naively thought that if I could get above the clouds, ...
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The first reading throughout the entire Easter Season, if you haven’t already figured it out, is always taken from a book in the Bible called the Acts of the Apostles. They are stories, not always flattering, about how the Church began, survived, and thrived in the absence of Jesus’ physical presence. In order for the Church to get out of the first century, I just have to believe there was and is a Holy Spirit, and that Spirit must have ...
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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 to God. But the ...
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When I read and ponder these gospel stories, Jesus always comes across as the model, the archetype, the goal to which I strive. I believe he is the potential within me, that I never quite reach, and he is also the encouragement within me to keep striving. Jesus is the complete human being calling me and every human being to be fully human as he was. In that sense, I can say he is the universal Christ.
On the flip side of the coin, ...
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My friend, Byron, was a ‘White Father’ missionary to Africa in one of his lives. He told me of one remote tribe there, who had no problem with the movement of the sun across the sky. How did the sun get back east to rise again? Why, it went back the same way across the sky, but “we can’t see it because it is dark at night.” Scientists today also noticed it is dark at night, so they explain it ...
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I love this line from today’s gospel, “The sheep follow him because they know his voice.” The assumption is that if the sheep recognize the shepherd’s voice, they will follow him. And if they follow him, he will lead them to green pastures where they will find life in abundance. “I came that you might have life and have it abundantly.” The whole thing starts with recognition—sheep recognizing the shepherd’s voice. The post-resurrection stories we’ve heard so far during the Easter Season, are all stories where ...
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I know very little about shepherds. In fact I would argue, that very few of us do. Frankly, I was shocked to discover that shepherds are still a real thing. That, although modern methods of farming have made protecting and herding sheep a lot easier, there are still many places in the world, including places in North America, where shepherds continue doing the job which has been done for thousands of years – one source indicated it may well be ...
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When Jesus broke bread at what we traditionally call The Last Supper, he said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” In other words, “If you want to remember the truth about me, then break and eat bread, pour and drink wine in my name, and you will remember me. If you try to remember me without breaking bread or drinking wine in my name, you won’t remember me.” If we don’t remember Jesus, we will be forced to create a substitute. If ...
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