First he hung up a sign, Marvolo, the greatest tight rope walker ever. Then he strung a wire across Niagara Falls. A crowd gathered and he asked if they thought he could walk across the falls. The crowd was skeptical – too windy, too wet, too scary. He hopped on the wire and over and… Read More »

The “leaders, elders and scribes” were amazed the Peter and John spoke so boldly about Jesus perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men. The Apostles didn’t talk theology or philosophy with the leaders — they couldn’t have done so even if they wanted to. They talked about their experience, about how Jesus had changed their… Read More »

St. John’s gospel ends at chapter 20 — so chapter 21 is like a bonus, a “but wait, there’s more” moment. The story is too good to forget. After the events of Jesus’ suffering, death and Resurrection Peter and companions went back home, back to Galilee. They try to return to the life they knew… Read More »

During the fifty days of Easter — from now until Pentecost — the first reading for each day is taken from the Acts of the Apostles.  The message of the Church: if you want to know the meaning of the Resurrection you can see it in how the followers of Jesus were changed because of… Read More »

Twenty-five years after Vatican II  Bishops around the world clamored for a new catechism. It was published in 1992 so that Catholics would know what to believe. The example of Jesus on the road to Emmaus provides an alternative method of helping people come to faith. Jesus listens to the concerns of the Cleopas family,… Read More »

In the days after Vatican II they would bring the priests and brothers into the seminary for “theological updating.” One of the priests once came out of one session muttering under his breathe the words of Mary Magdalene:  “They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.” He was discovering that… Read More »

The gospel writers make it clear that the first witnesses to the Resurrection of Jesus were women. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce the news to his disciples. In Eastern Orthodox Christiaan tradition the Myrrhbearers are venerated — those women with myrrh… Read More »

Nobody knew what to make of that first Easter Sunday. The disciples didn’t understand the scriptures. Mary Magdalene thought the body has been stolen and later on believed that the Risen Lord is a gardener. People are running here and there. Peter saw the linen wrappings but couldn’t figure out what that meant. The so-called… Read More »

Modern science keeps refining the understanding of what constitutes the world we inhabit. Atoms and molecules were the first breakthrough, which years later led to a more complex understanding called the standard model with terms like quarks and muons and bosons – whatever they are. The seeming discovery of dark matter and energy suggest that… Read More »

There was a TV show in the early days of television called “You bet your life.” On the show no one literally bet their life but we find Jesus doing so in St. John’s account of the passion. In the trial scene with Pilate Jesus bets his life on the truth. “For this I was… Read More »