Religious Education - Children
Catechist BlogMaking the Right Choice
Amanda Gorman is the young writer and activist who delivered her acclaimed poem “The Hill We Climb” at President Biden’s inaugural. Last week [May 28, 2022], The New York Times published her latest work on its editorial page. “Hymn for the Hurting” is the 24-year-old...
Elijah and Jesus: Building on and Fulfilling Tradition
In the reading today from the Old Testament the people of Israel had strayed far from a communal relationship with the God of the faith tradition. Many families had opted to recognize and worship foreign gods, especially Baal. The prophet Elijah laments how the people...
Miracles in plain sight
The first reading today often focused on the miraculous: “For the LORD, the God of Israel, says, ‘The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, until the day when the LORD sends rain upon the earth.’” - and that is miraculous, the work of God....
Mary, Mother of the Church
Today we celebrate the feast of Mary, the Mother of the Church. It is a Marian feast added to the liturgical calendar by Pope Francis in 2018. Yesterday, on Pentecost Sunday we celebrated the birth of the church empowered by the holy Spirit. Each of us, through our...
Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Sometimes forgiveness is easy but sometimes forgiveness can be difficult or even impossible. Jesus seems to find it easy to forgive while still taking seriously the offense. Peter’s offense is that he three times denied that he even knew Jesus. Jesus forgives Peter...
Living in Hope
In Barbara Kingsolver’s novel Animal Dreams, Hallie offers this advice to her struggling sister Cadie: “The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but...
Oneness and Charity
“...so that they may be one just as we are one...” (John 17:11). The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) para. 811 holds that the four marks of the Church are: one, holy, catholic and apostolic - each inseparably connected to one another. I would certainly...
How we think of her
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Visitation when the Blessed Virgin Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth. It is but one piece of the mosaic of this woman. Today’s gospel passage, the Magnificat is a mosaic of Old Testament quotations and allusions interpreting the...
What I Might Find Out
“In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.” - such are the closing words of today’s Gospel. Now I have the odd problem, but if people asked me if I had troubles, my response would be “No.” I recognize that such fortune has been...
Return to In-Person Mass
At the end of a long project or journey, we often say that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Perhaps that expression is best modified for our pandemic experience with all the waves and surges of COVID variants. One needs to be sure there is no relative...