St. Mark describes the apostles as self-absorbed, ambitious, seeking benefits, rivaling. To break that cycle of focus on little old me Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out. He wanted them to understand that sharing in his mission is about what others are going through, not what I am going through. The students… Read More »

Many themes run through today’s feast of the Presentation of the Lord. As the scripture readings emphasis, Jesus as the hope of God’s people as the incarnate Son of God is presented to the people. The feast also remembers that on the fortieth day after the birth of a child a mother would be “purified”… Read More »

You can imagine how happy Jairus was when Jesus agreed to come to heal his daughter … and how frustrated he was when the woman with a hemorrhage stopped the Lord on his way. My guess is that he thought “you have been sick for twelve years. Can’t you wait one more day so that… Read More »

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 »