Every weekend an elderly man sits through the entire Mass at the back of the church with his arms folded across his chest and a scowl on his face. He doesn’t open his mouth to sing nor pray, not even the “Our Father.” I’m sure if I did a little digging, I would find Oscar the Grouch, from Sesame Street, adorning his family coat of arms. There is also a woman, a bit younger than the Grouch, who, out of ...
Continue Reading →
There must have been something important about this story of Jesus feeding the multitude, because it is repeated six times in the four gospels. I don’t think the point of it was to be a one-off, a one-time miracle that happened 2000 years ago never to be repeated again. Nor do I think Jesus was out to prove that, as the Son of God, he and he alone had the power to pull this off. Like all miracles, it was meant ...
Continue Reading →
Of all the Feasts, Solemnities, Memorials or Ordinary Time Sundays that come up in the liturgical calendar, I do not think there is one more “Catholic” than the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ which we celebrate this weekend. I use the big “C” in catholic as opposed to the small “c” as the big “C” means belonging to the Roman Catholic Church as opposed to the small “c” which means “all embracing, or universal”. What ...
Continue Reading →
Throughout the world Catholics, in particular, and Christians, in general, are celebrating the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. To define the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is only somewhat helpful for our spiritual development. It’s nice to have an analogy like the three lobes of a clover, like St. Patrick was supposed to have used, but what I really want to know is how Trinity functions in my life and in the life of the world. That would ...
Continue Reading →
Actually, in 2016, I wrote the reflection for Holy Trinity Sunday. I looked back and remembered writing about the priest in my small Catholic high school who challenged us to practice our faith. He told us, that rather than getting caught up in the explanation of the mystery of the Trinity or trying to understand everything about God like one would explain a scientific theory, we needed to just remember that He is our God. He said God is balanced out ...
Continue Reading →
Pentecost is traditionally called the “birthday of the Church.” Something definitely came to birth on that first Pentecost. What can we say about the Holy Spirit, especially as it relates to how we try to live our faith?
One of the things the Spirit did at Pentecost, and has not stopped doing ever since, is create intimacy. I remember being at Mass 30 years ago at the L’Arche community where I was spending a summer. The late Fr. Henri Nouwen was ...
Continue Reading →
As I think about Pentecost, the words of a Jewish song, that is more than a thousand years old and still sung at Passover celebrations today, keep going through my mind. The chorus of the song is Dayenu which means “It would have been enough.” The song recounts the many blessings God gave the Jewish people and states after each one is named, that even if no other blessings had followed, that would have been enough. Had God only led ...
Continue Reading →
I don’t expect you to remember it, but last Sunday’s gospel was the gospel writer John’s version of the Last Supper. However, in John’s gospel there is no Last Supper per se but, instead there is the story of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet and giving them a long farewell speech. In that long speech, he says something that sounds like double talk. He says, “I am going away, and I am coming to you” all in the one sentence. It sounds like Jesus ...
Continue Reading →
Ascension should be one of the most important days in our catholic faith. It should be celebrated like Christmas because Christmas is the day when Jesus is born in our likeness, a human being. He was born and lived like us, and his journey was to teach about his Father, our creator. He was born to teach us on how to live with each other and love one another. He taught about the 10 laws of life, which are the ...
Continue Reading →
My relationship with the Church has been on a bit of a rollercoaster ride these past few years. My sense of hope has been at war with the disappointment and anger I have felt over some of the institutional church’s response to modern issues. While it has called its own members to a renewed sense of sinfulness and mercy, it seemed to have shown little mercy on issues of divorce, gender identity and equality, while avoiding responsibility in dealing with ...
Continue Reading →