God does amazing things. God created the universe. From the moment of creation 13.7 billion years ago stars and galaxies and space and time itself have been formed and are forming. The very teeny-weeny particle of matter that we call an atom can produce enough power to fuel the sun — or destroy the earth… Read More »

Parenting has changed dramatically. When I was growing up, I knew a family where the mother was always pushing her children to do better. “You got a 95% on that exam. How come you didn’t get 100%.” As adults her children resented her but she merely shrugged. “You seem to have come out OK.” And… Read More »

The neighborhood where I grew up in Baltimore has a block party every year. Last month at the annual event 900 people had an enjoyable day until around midnight when shots rang out with two people killed and more than thirty wounded. There was no police presence. At the hearings with the City Council and… Read More »

Geologists have observed that over millennia the polarity of planet earth shifts — what had been north pole becomes south and vice versa, what had been a positive pole becomes negative. The Feast of the Cross can be looked upon as a polarity shift. Human beings from Adam and Eve had been trying to get… Read More »

The way my sister and I remember the events of our childhood, now at fifty years remove, can differ widely. We experienced the same things but what they meant to us and how we interpret them today says alot about us. Something similar happens in the written gospels. What Jesus said and did fifty years… Read More »

You have to wonder about Jesus’ skills in HR. This twelve “hires” were something of a bust — one betrayed him, another denied him, and the rest deserted him when the chips were down. When St. Luke tells the story of their call he stresses that they were “named apostles,” i.e. those who were sent.… Read More »

“By his stripes, we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). From the beginning, the preaching of the Church has stressed that the suffering and death of Christ are redemptive for humanity. St. Paul provides a nuance to this understanding in his letter to the Colossians.  In my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the… Read More »

God is big – real big. You can never wrap your arms around God. There are probably as many ways to encounter God as all the human beings who ever have been or ever will be. Encountering God has many expressions, many traditions, many religions, many denominations. But it is possible to group the ways… Read More »

Have you been following the news that next month Pope Francis will convene a synod on synodality? This will be another step in the process which began several years ago. The Holy Father wants us as Church to hear the voices of the global body of Christ: Laity, religious and ordained. There have been howls… Read More »

Today’s feast, the nativity of Mary, was celebrated in the Holy Land as early as the sixth century. Although there is nothing in the Bible which speaks of her birth she certainly was born and September 8 (nine months after the Feast of the Immaculate Conception) is as good a day as any to celebrate.… Read More »