I don’t know if anyone else feels this way, but I found that this liturgical calendar has gone by so fast. As we quickly approach the end of this liturgical year, like any good “end of the year”, we prepare. Don’t we all set out at the end of the year, setting out goals and challenges for ourselves? Well, that’s exactly what we’re being asked in this week’s gospel reading; to be prepared and to get ready. But be prepared ...
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While God, through Moses, gave us the 10 Commandments, God, through Jesus, gave us the Beatitudes—a new way of living our relationship with God. You may have noticed there are eight Beatitudes with the eighth one sort of spinning into a ninth one about rejoicing in the face of persecution.
I like to look at the first four Beatitudes one way and the last four, differently. The first four–Blessed are the poor, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the meek, ...
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“Bad habits are like a comfortable bed, easy to get into, but hard to get out of.” Isn’t that true? Bad habits abound in all of our lives and are not just the downfall of gambling-chain-smoking-foul-mouthed nuns! As Catholics we have always been susceptible to having bad habits encroach upon the way we celebrate Eucharist. And now with the restrictions and protocols thrusted upon us during this pandemic time, it is even easier for us to slip into bad liturgical ...
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When Jews of Biblical times read the first five book of the Bible (also called the Pentateuch, Torah or the Law of Moses), they discerned, for better or for worse, that there were 613 laws that they felt God was asking them to follow. (By the way, we have 1752 laws as Catholics in the Code of Canon Law). These 613 were apart from the 10 biggies we have come to know as the 10 Commandment. Now, the Pharisees who ...
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As I sit to write this, the date is October 19th and it has been 214 days since Premier Higgs declared a state of emergency and our province was, in effect, shut down. In church world, there have been 31 Sundays come and go since we were last able to gather as an entire faith community, and not just the ones we could fit in and respect social distancing guidelines. And now (as I write this) we are back in ...
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You have all heard the expression “Money talks.” I heard a good one-liner the other day that said, “Money talks, all mine says is good bye.” It was true in Biblical times and is probably even more true now that “money talks.” When you have money, you can buy your way out of certain situations that a poor person cannot. When you have money, you can influence a situation in ways that you could not if you did not have ...
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This week’s gospel is the familiar rendition of attempts to entrap Jesus when He is asked, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?” If Jesus says that the tax should be paid to Caesar, He would be considered guilty of false worship since the Romans believe the emperor to be divine. On the other hand, if Jesus says the tax should not be paid, He would be encouraging disobedience to Roman laws, which would be sedition – ...
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Have you ever been invited somewhere that you really didn’t want to go?
My experience is that there are very few of us comfortable with just saying no to these invitations. We feel we have to offer a plausible explanation as to why we can’t attend. Come up with a believable excuse that will spare the inviter’s feelings.
This always brings back memories of asking girls out in high school. I am still not sure why Saturday night is such a big ...
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Today’s gospel passage is one that used to really bother me. The king sees a wedding guest who is not wearing the proper clothing and has him bound hand and foot and thrown into the outer darkness. I understood that the wedding garments had been provided for the guests and failure to wear the wedding garment was a sign of disrespect, but I was still uncomfortable with what I thought was an emphasis on wearing the “right” clothes. Today, I ...
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This is the third Sunday we have a parable set in a vineyard. Vineyards are places where both labor and love take place. Biblically speaking, vineyards are where you earn your keep by working hard, and they are places of romance and courting. Labour and love. These three last Sundays have given us stories of labour but not so much love. You may recall the parable from a couple of weeks ago of the vineyard owner who hired labourers at ...
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