See what love the Father bestowed upon us that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! St. John states as a fact, an indicative in grammar, that we already are the children of God. Too often in the church we put the imperative ahead of the indicative — we… Read More »
JANUARY22020
By happy coincidence (providence!) on this day when we remember Sts Basil and Gregory the reading chosen is from the first epistle of St. John. The saints used this epistle to refute the erroneous idea that Jesus was a holy man and a good teacher but could not be called the son of God. How… Read More »
JANUARY12020
Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. Mary had some dramatic experiences. She found that God had a plan for her, that her son had a special calling, that a hostile world was out to get him, that strangers would be attracted to him. In order to understand what all… Read More »
DECEMBER312019
St. John in the prologue to his gospel uses a common literary technique. The poem is constructed as a series narrative motifs situated as brackets. It begins: “and the word was with God.” It ends: “only-begotten Son, God, is at the Father’s side.” Next ring: “What came to be through him was life” opposed to… Read More »
DECEMBER302019
In the days after Christmas we read from the first epistle of St. John. He starts off the epistle reminding his readers (us) that he is talking about what he has seen, what he has heard, what he has touched. The presence of God in the world with the coming of Jesus is not theoretical… Read More »
DECEMBER292019
The first years of life are crucial in a child’s development. You only have to look at an infant or young baby taking in everything with wide-eyed openness to know they are absorbing the world around them like a sponge. If what they take in are trust, acceptance, encouragement, comfort, inspiration, reassurance and love they… Read More »
DECEMBER282019
Unlike the first angelic dream bearing good news, Joseph’s second dream was dire. “Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.” Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. Like refugees right up to the present, a young family flees violence in hopes of a… Read More »
DECEMBER272019
What we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touched with our hands … we proclaim what we have seen and heard. St. John begins his first epistle reminding his readers (us!) that the faith was produced by his experience, his encounter with a real person. The fact… Read More »
DECEMBER262019
The story of the martyrdom of St. Stephen reminds me of another martyrdom several centuries later (1996) — that of the Trappist monks from the monastery of Tibherine in Algeria. The abbot, Father Christian de Chergé, wrote a sort of last will and testament. He addressed his killer, “the friend of my final moment,” with… Read More »
DECEMBER252019
God gathered together with his advisers: the archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. Oh, and Fred, Archangel Fred was there too. God asked them, when you look at the world, what do you see. Gabriel answered: I see a people who walk in darkness and dwell in a land of gloom. Raphael said, “I see those… Read More »
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