GOSPEL MEDITATION – June 30, 2019 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time Have you ever heard that the Gospel is radical? In our times, we hear that word and think of fundamentalists, radical activists, or extremists – people who go beyond limits to achieve their goals and may not consider...
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. Officially, the origins of the feast day began in the 13th century, but the idea of celebrating the body and Blood of Christ, began long before. Pope Urban IV is credited for issuing the papal bull that instituted...
Today is Trinity Sunday, the most dreaded weekend for anyone preparing a homily or sermon for the day. It can only be rivaled by Paul’s “Wife’s obey your husbands” in squeamishness in homilizing about. To talk about the Trinity in any length, one must enter into some heady and theological...
June 9, 2019 Pentecost Sunday “God is always more.” Have you ever heard that? If we truly believe that He is infinite, then this statement is worth exploring. Today, we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit in power upon the early Church. But Pentecost wasn’t the first time the...
Today’s Gospel, in my opinion is the most intimate glimpse of Jesus’ thoughts, emotions and feelings in his humanity. Of course the question is, “what is the source, that John processed that he used in his Gospel?” That question can be reserved to theologians and biblical scholars, but for our...
In today’s Gospel Jesus tells us that Advocate is coming, that is the Holy Spirit. The New Testament comes up with some pretty cool names. The comedian Jim Gaffigan does a routine about how the followers of Jesus came up with their names. He imagined the 12 asking Jesus if...
”When Judas left, Jesus said, ‘Now is the Son of Man Glorified’.” Why? Why, on Thursday night, hours before he would be arrested, tortured, scourged and executed…why, would Jesus feel that he was glorified? It seems like an odd thing to say at that moment in Jesus’ life, especially at...
May 12, 2019 4th Sunday of Easter We all face obstacles in life. Perhaps it’s a lost job, the death of a loved one, a sudden accident that places an unexpected dent in our finances. Sometimes the challenges are of our own making. Perhaps we’ve developed patterns of sin...
Today’s Gospel is an example of John at his best. He gives us a wonderfully descriptive and charming description of the disciples’ behavior and attitudes, post resurrection and paints a purposeful description of post resurrection Jesus. There are some who criticize Peter’s and the others’ decision to go fishing, claiming...
Since Holy Thursday, we have been talking about the wild ride of emotions that the disciples had endured since the strange proceedings at that last supper, to the violent arrest of Jesus, their fear and loss, the savage execution of the one they loved and followed. At the break of...