Sun, 14 April 2024
Heaven will be beyond our imagining ... and also very familiar. |
Sun, 14 April 2024
Our faith does depend upon the testimony of witnesses. |
Sun, 14 April 2024
Understanding is superior to seeing. |
Sun, 14 April 2024
The consciousness of Jesus and his self-emptying. |
Sun, 14 April 2024
"Christ learned obedience from what he suffered." This statement from Hebrews may be hard to accept. But Jesus' experience of suffering allows us to bear our own. |
Sun, 14 April 2024
Anger and love can and, very often, do go together. |
Tue, 5 March 2024
Anger. |
Tue, 5 March 2024
Fasting from words. |
Mon, 19 February 2024
Peace is one of the gifts of the season of Lent. |
Mon, 19 February 2024
There are many indications in Mark's Gospel of an aspect of Jesus' personality: that he is eager for solitude and quiet. |
Mon, 19 February 2024
Each of us is more than what we do. The same goes for Jesus. |
Mon, 19 February 2024
The deacon preached on January 21. -- Can we appreciate the peace and calm arising from being freed from mental illness? |
Mon, 19 February 2024
The touching call of Samuel gives all of us hope that we will hear the call of God, even if many times we mishear it. |
Mon, 19 February 2024
Ephesians: The nations beyond the Chosen People inherit the Good News of Jesus' death and resurrection. |
Sun, 31 December 2023
On the Fourth Sunday of Advent, I left the recording device behind, and when I remembered it, I said to myself that I would be mad to run home for it on this absolutely crazy weekend, with Christmas on Monday. -- We'd like to see around the bend, beyond our capacities. But we remember: "Lord, your words have been fulfilled." |
Sun, 31 December 2023
We make many decisions about who we think is impressive and attractive. We might want to re-think our criteria. |
Sun, 31 December 2023
I remember why December 3 did not get recorded. My recording device had a dead battery. -- Where are we to find comfort and joy? |
Sun, 31 December 2023
"The least" is not Jesus' concept. It is something we have devised so we can tell ourselves to whom to pay attention. Jesus confounds our strategies. |
Sun, 31 December 2023
I cannot recall why I did not record November 12. -- There is more to life than being industrious. |
Sun, 31 December 2023
A focus on today's psalm, 131, about the peace which all profess to desire. |
Mon, 13 November 2023
We must heed St. Paul's words: "Be transformed by the renewal of your mind." |
Mon, 13 November 2023
Peter professes faith in Jesus ... having no idea what his adherence to Jesus will mean. |
Mon, 13 November 2023
I cannot recall why I have no recording for August 13. -- I reflect on a discussion of the nature of interfaith friendship. These words seem quite prescient as we consider the agony in Gaza/West Bank and Israel. |
Mon, 13 November 2023
We consider the feelings of Peter, James and John as they behold their Master transfigured. |
Mon, 13 November 2023
It appears that I recorded myself twice this Sunday. |
Mon, 13 November 2023
I regret that next Sunday's feast of the Transfiguration keeps us from hearing "What can separate us?" (Romans 8.) So I have included what we otherwise would have heard the following Sunday! |
Mon, 13 November 2023
Do you often rebuke temerity? Are you frustrated by a lack of explanation of Jesus' parables? Why does prayer seem to be so much like groaning? |
Mon, 13 November 2023
I was on vacation on July 9. -- We must open ourselves to the gift of insight, a way of seeing more deeply the meaning of life. |
Mon, 13 November 2023
My best guess is that the deacon preached on June 25. -- A return to Romans 6 and the core teaching on baptism. |
Mon, 13 November 2023
We read from Romans that our salvation is sheer gift. |
Mon, 13 November 2023
Reflections on the Eucharist in light of the death of a man who built an altar. |
Sat, 10 June 2023
It appears that I have copied over the Fifth Sunday of Easter and following so that they are lost. My apologies. |
Sat, 10 June 2023
Even the First Letter of Peter contains imagery of sheep and shepherding. |
Sat, 10 June 2023
The First Letter of Peter thinks about Jesus' death and resurrection as our "ransom" from eternal death. |
Sat, 10 June 2023
We must take note of the First Letter of Peter, our second reading for the Sundays of Easter this year. There are many statements of encouragement which make us feel more alive. |
Sat, 10 June 2023
Are we, in fact, ready for the gift of resurrection? |
Thu, 6 April 2023
The ninth chapter of John's Gospel causes us to ask: Who is really blind? |
Thu, 6 April 2023
The raising of Lazarus was a sign of the coming resurrection -- and also a provocation. |
Thu, 6 April 2023
On the Second Sunday of Lent, the deacon preached. -- We must be aware of our various thirsts. |
Wed, 1 March 2023
Considering distraction as a major element of temptation leading to sin. |
Wed, 1 March 2023
This homily ran a lot longer than usual, mainly because of late word of the homicide by firearm of an auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles. The focus is mainly on our misunderstanding of what Jesus means when he says we are to be "perfect." |
Wed, 1 March 2023
A discussion of the reality of free will. |
Wed, 1 March 2023
Jesus says, "Let your light shine"; but he also says "Don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." Does he contradict himself? |
Tue, 31 January 2023
Jesus begins his Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes: promises that we will be happy even if it seems we are out of step with what most of the world is doing. |
Tue, 31 January 2023
This is the Sunday of the Word of God, and we begin our year-long reading from the Gospel of Matthew with Jesus' choosing of his first four disciples. |
Tue, 31 January 2023
We are getting started with the long expanse of Ordinary Time and particularly with a continuous reading from Paul's first letter to the Christians of Corinth, Greece. |
Tue, 31 January 2023
The Bishop of Rome Emeritus, Pope Benedict XVI, died yesterday. His resignation in 2013 provided an example to all of us that we all must acknowledge our limits. Mary's identity as "Mother of God" means that she is pointing to her Son and encouraging us to greater amazement at his identity as truly God and truly human. |
Tue, 31 January 2023
In our age of information, the Scriptures for Christmas Day are all about the Word who says everything to us. |
Tue, 31 January 2023
Advent points us to completion and fulfillment. What do we think such fulfillment will look like? |
Tue, 31 January 2023
Entering the privileged time of Advent, we are invited into timelessness and the possibility of doing something productive with our swords. |
Tue, 31 January 2023
Please note: A number of Sundays are missing. I know that I left the device at home on the Third Sunday of Advent, when I pointed out a crescendo in what the prophets and the Gospels were saying about "the one who is to come." Other Sundays, the deacon preached. Kingship and kinship: Christ is King of humanity because he has identified with our lowest ebb. |
Wed, 16 November 2022
The Sadducees did not believe in eternal life; therefore, they were sad, you see. |
Wed, 16 November 2022
Last weekend, the deacon preached. -- If we think about sin, we must also think about mercy, forgiveness, and healing. |
Wed, 16 November 2022
Prayer is not for the sake of controlling God. We must immerse ourselves in prayer so that we may discover how to be united with our God. |
Wed, 16 November 2022
The story of Naaman inspires us to consider failures of imagination and the concept of local gods. |
Sun, 2 October 2022
Again, the homilist must have forgotten to record September 18. Too bad; it built on an earlier Sunday's pronouncement that life is not a game. On September 25, the deacon preached. -- We need to become more comfortable with the statement "We are unprofitable servants" so that we will wait actively for "the vision." |
Sun, 2 October 2022
The weekend of September 4, the homilist was in Paris and North Arm while their priest made a Mission Co-op appeal in the homilist's parishes on behalf of his diocese in Rwanda. -- The stories of Luke 15 can be revisited countless times, and they do not get old. God's mercy does not make sense -- but we know we need it. |
Sun, 2 October 2022
Jesus is not giving an etiquette lesson. He is asking us why we are so concerned about status when people who cannot gain any such status need to be responded to. |
Sun, 2 October 2022
The homilist must have failed to record August 14, shortly after his mother's funeral. -- Anyway, LIFE IS NOT A GAME and is, in fact, BETTER than a game. |
Sun, 2 October 2022
The homilist preached on the short form of the Gospel, seeing no need to talk about beatings. |
Sun, 2 October 2022
After three weeks away, because of a visit to Guatemala and the souvenir he brought back (Covid), the homilist returns and considers the vanity-content of our lives. |
Sat, 9 July 2022
Do you think that perhaps Jesus was seeking new recruits because he was having second thoughts about James and John? |
Sat, 9 July 2022
The return to Ordinary Time and a consideration of vocation was somewhat overshadowed by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision and its implications. |
Sat, 9 July 2022
This separate celebration of the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist can never be separated from Holy Thursday and the Passion of Jesus. |
Sat, 9 July 2022
Two persons of the Trinity are called "Father" and "Son." Therefore I decided to stick with family relationships. |
Tue, 7 June 2022
We, the Christian community, can work through our problems together. |
Tue, 7 June 2022
The Christian people began with a small number; Revelation promises that this nucleus will grow into a vast throng. |
Tue, 7 June 2022
We as Christian community must be fed by the Sacred Scriptures. |
Tue, 7 June 2022
The gift of resurrection is the foundation of our Christian community. |
Tue, 7 June 2022
What sort of conversation can be held among three people condemned and dying? Saint Luke's Passion gives us an example, and it is the opposite of futile. |
Tue, 7 June 2022
Our lives are not games. We must not manipulate people. We must treasure the gift of forgiveness which our God has given us, and allow that gift to make us compassionate. |
Tue, 7 June 2022
The story of the father and his two sons never fails to agitate us as we marvel at the behaviors therein portrayed. |
Tue, 7 June 2022
The "problem of evil" is best addressed by our looking at the evil within our own hearts, and opening ourselves to conversion. |
Tue, 7 June 2022
How are promises to be fulfilled? What is our reaction if we simply see no way to fulfillment? |
Tue, 7 June 2022
Beware the polarities of "I am God" and "I am nothing." If we understand ourselves as God's beloved creatures, we will be less likely to succumb to temptation. |
Tue, 7 June 2022
The Third and Fifth Sundays of Easter, and the Ascension, are missing. In the case of the first two, I had left the recorder at home and did not feel like running back for it. The Ascension marked the return of Deacon Bob Crosby, who preached. As I recall, on the Third Sunday of Easter, I preached about our need as Christian community to grow comfortable with one another -- which Peter obviously was not when he discovered himself to be in the presence of the risen Jesus. On the Fifth Sunday of Easter, I focused on the word "elder" in the Acts of the Apostles and the fact that I am technically a presbyter or "elder," and became an elder before I had turned 26. |
Mon, 28 February 2022
There was a lot to talk about, including the Russian attack on Ukraine, in light of the image of having a block of wood in your eye. |
Mon, 28 February 2022
It was a crazy day, and what I have here is a summary. Love your enemies. |
Sun, 13 February 2022
"Blessed are you who are poor": may there be no obstacles to our accepting this promise of Jesus. (This file runs a little long; I remembered to turn off the device after I dismissed our catechumen.) |
Sun, 13 February 2022
I don't like to be startled. Peter, I suppose, needed to be startled. I trust in God's gentle revelations to me of his presence. |
Sun, 13 February 2022
St. Paul's meditation on love anchors us in a sense of what is valuable. |
Sun, 13 February 2022
How clear is St. Paul's "analogy of the body"! |
Sun, 13 February 2022
The Magi, the baptism of Jesus, the wine at Cana: all these are connected with Epiphany, the manifestation of Jesus to the world. |
Sun, 13 February 2022
In the midst of uncertainty, we have a "theophany" -- God showing himself to us. Sorry, this file runs a little long; I forgot to turn off the device. |
Sun, 13 February 2022
We see very clearly that the human family is a global community. |
Sun, 13 February 2022
There are tensions even within the Holy Family. We must not be surprised at the tensions within ours. |
Sun, 13 February 2022
The account of the visit of Mary to Elizabeth is crowned by the Canticle of Mary, the Magnificat. |
Sun, 13 February 2022
John the Baptist speaks of elementary, immediate acts of social justice. |
Sun, 13 February 2022
Luke very deliberately fixes the time of the emergence of John the Baptist. |
Sun, 13 February 2022
We lift up our heads with confident expectation of what God is giving us. |
Sun, 13 February 2022
This is a king whom Pilate cannot fathom. |
Sun, 13 February 2022
As we try to appreciate the gift of everlasting life, we find that anything having to do with love will help us. |
Sun, 7 November 2021
Jesus, both priest and sacrifice, offered his own blood in the heavenly sanctuary. |
Sun, 7 November 2021
Law must find its way into our hearts and habits. |
Sun, 7 November 2021
Jesus is the effective high priest because he shares in humans' weakness. |
Sun, 7 November 2021
Six months away from the Easter Triduum, we read two Scripture passages associated with Good Friday. |
Sun, 7 November 2021
Hebrews: The Word of God penetrates even the spaces within ourselves where there is no space. |
Sun, 7 November 2021
No recordings exist for the last three Sundays of September. -- Take note of the argument of the Letter to the Hebrews, to be presented during the next seven Sundays. |
Sun, 7 November 2021
As Jesus respects the man he heals, so we must be cognizant of the private and public spheres of everyone's lives. |
Sun, 7 November 2021
We must credit the ancients with insight into disease, even if they did not have direct knowledge of microorganisms. Jesus is making a different point: to be concerned, not about what passes through you, but rather about the evil which emerges from you. |