Pope Francis has reminded us that as Christians we are called to be missionary disciples. The founder of my congregation, Fr. Thomas Judge, said something similar when he adopted the motto “every Catholic is called to be an apostle.” That can sound kind of intimidating — where and how are we supposed to be missionaries,… Read More »

I will always love you. How deep is your love? I know something about love. Love, love me, do. Love train. Love Boat, Love Child, Muskrat love. Endless love. Crazy in love. How many love songs do you think have been written in our lifetime? 100? 1000? 10000? Paul McCartney even sang “You think I… Read More »

The news reports that many of the participants in the insurrection at the US Capitol last year have plead guilty. Interestingly, many of those plea deals include some excuse they hope the judge will use as a mitigating factor. “I had a poor childhood.” “I got caught up with the crowd.” “I was heeding the… Read More »

The rich and powerful taking sexual advantage of the vulnerable is as old as King David and as recent at Jeffrey Epstein.  What also is perennial is how easy it is to lose one’s moral compass. Take General Joab. David wrote a letter to Joab which he sent by Uriah. In it he directed: “Place… Read More »

In 2 Samuel 7 King David, now that his kingdom was secure, decided to “build a house for the Lord.” Of course the house for the Lord would be right next to the palace and keep David in control. The prophet said to Daniel, not so fast. You think you’re going to build a house… Read More »

The parable of the sower in Mark’s gospel is unusual in that it has an explanation attached to it. The explanation of the parable focuses on the obstacles to receiving the word of God with the implication that we must eliminate those obstancles. However,  if we look at the parable without the explanation there seems… Read More »

The conversion of St. Paul was obviously a big deal in the early Church. St. Luke tells the story three different times in the book of Acts to impress on us how big a deal it was. However, the way Luke tells the story doesn’t help us understand how conversion usually works. Most times conversion… Read More »

Although King David was idealized by later Israel the Bible does not portray him as an ideal character. He was sly, cunning, vengeful, prideful, selfish, lusty — pretty much the description of most kings.  One very savvy political move he made was the establishment of Jerusalem as his capital.  The king and his men set… Read More »

Three years ago when we last had this gospel passage I told a true story about a friend of mine who worked for one of the bishops in California. It seems even more relevant now than it did back then. The bishop was away so he called back to the diocese. “John,” he asked, “how… Read More »

“Alas! the glory of Israel, Saul, slain upon your heights; how can the warriors have fallen!” The relationship of Saul and David was, well, complicated. David was Saul’s most successful general and because of that Saul looked on David as a threat, a rival. Several times Saul even tried to kill David. David, at least… Read More »