The days are getting longer and warmer. We have had flocks of evening grosbeaks and redpolls at our feeders. Spring is here! It is a time of hope, of excitement, of possibility … And yet, the dominant emotions that I am seeing and hearing all around me are discouragement, sorrow and frustration. It is hard for many of us to see what we have because we are so acutely aware of what we are missing. Even Easter seemed to fall ...
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Today is Divine Mercy Sunday. What does that mean?
It seems simple enough – God is infinitely merciful and so if we repent, He forgives our sins. And every time we say the Our Father, we promise to forgive others in return for His forgiveness. So, one meaning for mercy is forgiveness.
But it has another meaning: compassion.
So, how does this relate to my day-to-day life?
Let me tell you about St. Giuseppe Moscati.
Giuseppe Moscati was the seventh of nine children born in ...
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“Faith is to believe what you do not see;
The reward of faith is to see what you believe.”
St. Augustine
Throughout our lives, we encounter experiences that knock our sense of balance off kilter and we discover that what we believed to be unchangeable is now somewhat unstable. When unexpected loss, trauma or darkness envelops us, or those we love, we sometimes question our deepest beliefs in God and in ourselves. Although varied reasons exist, few of us have managed to ...
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I wish I was more familiar with the Psalms. They are brilliant. I am convinced there is a psalm that names and gives hope to every conceivable situation we could ever find ourselves in. Here’s a line from Psalm 25: “No one has ever trusted in the Lord and been put to shame.” This is a pretty good mantra for Easter Sunday morning. Trust is the key, though.
A number of years ago, although it could have easily been in the ...
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This resurrection story is a story not only of Jesus being raised to new life, but more importantly, it is the story of the movement from fear to love in all of our lives. One thing the gospel writers Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all have in common when they tell the resurrection story is the chronic mistake of people going to the wrong place. There is always someone in the wrong place telling them to go to the right ...
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Although we just heard the passion reading from the gospel writer John, all four gospel writers (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) basically tell the same story but with slightly different emphases. I’m going to draw a little bit from each of them. We are in the year of Mark, which means that almost all of the gospel stories we hear at Sunday Mass, this year, are taken from the Gospel of Mark. I love the opening line of Mark’s Gospel. ...
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Opening Questions
Two things really jump out at me when I hear the story that Lexie and Karen read for us. The first one is that Jesus can bring people together, no matter the ...
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There is a big leap of faith asked of Peter and the other apostles in today’s gospel story. Jesus is asking them and, by extension, us to make room for a big change in the way we think. The dominant way for all of us to avoid change in our lives—even change that helps us grow—is to go into our heads. We all do it, and we will all be doing it right up to the day we die. Human ...
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It was daunting when I realized my turn to write came on Easter Sunday. I read and studied all seven Readings from the Easter Vigil, the Exultat, the Baptismal Ceremony, the Epistles and Gospels. The “Exultat” sings in triumph, “O happy fault!” referring to the story in the Garden of Eden and the eating of the fruit of knowledge. The great Creation hymn that comprises the first reading (p. 349) is a prayerful reflection upon the knowledge given to Adam ...
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One thing we can say about all gospel stories—but especially the gospel stories we hear during Holy Week—is that they are very visual. Even if you never had the privilege of being in Jerusalem, you can easily picture the scene of Jesus riding on a donkey and the crowd waving palm branches. So, picture yourself, once again, amidst all the excitement of the voices shouting “Hosana.”
Since all gospel stories are part of the one story of salvation, allow me to ...
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