Who is up to learning a few words in Swahili? Actually, you already know these words if you ever watched the movie or saw the musical The Lion King. The main character is Simba. Simba is the Swahili word for “lion.” Another character in The Lion King is a wisecracking meerkat named Timon. The meerkat is the image that is staying with me this Advent. Timon sings a song called Hakuna Matata which is Swahili for “no worries” or “no ...
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The first Sunday of Advent is also the first day of a new Liturgical year. Since the 2021 Sunday missal was not yet available, I opened the New Testament and read the beginning: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” (Mt 1.1) My mother-in-law once told me that in her lifetime she read the Bible, all the way through, three times. “Except,” she admitted, “for the begats. I skipped over them.” ...
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I am going to start this morning by getting you all to think back to the time when you were preparing for your first reconciliation. For some of us , it will be quite a while ago, and for others, perhaps it is fairly recently. I know for me, it was so long ago that it wasn’t even called Reconciliation. It was the Sacrament of Penance or Confession.
I remember being so nervous; also a little embarrassed to be telling the ...
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Christ the King Sunday, and Matthew provides us a description of king: one who looks after ‘the least of these brothers and sisters’ when they are hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, imprisoned, strangers. Or one who may himself be experiencing some of that. Hard for us to reconcile our image of kingship with the image Matthew offers … no signs of palaces, crowns, riches in these images.
Through Baptism, we become part of the Body of Christ, “anointed priest, prophet and king” ...
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Once again, there is a connection between the first reading (Proverbs) about the “capable wife” and the gospel about the slaves left in charge of their master’s money. For me, the invitation in both passages is to be a risk taker. I find that challenging, because my nature is not to be a risk taker. For the most part, being cautious has served me well. I always look before I leap. But other times, being overly cautious has meant that ...
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When preparing young people to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation we often speak to them of gifts. We speak of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit (wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and wonder & awe) as well as the Fruit of the Holy Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.) The idea being that when we graciously receive the fits God bestows upon each of us and work at strengthening them, we are rewarded with ...
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As our liturgical year is drawing to an end, and we are on the cusp of beginning a new liturgical year in just a few weeks with Advent, our Scripture stories are more and more about the end times, or if you prefer the fancy, theological term “eschatology.” One thing I sense in these readings is that we are not to become obsessed with the questions of: “When will the Lord will return in glory?” nor with the question: “What ...
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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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