In our Christian assemblies we tend to forget the children. That is except of course the little babies who scream and cry. And to do away with the screamers, we put them in a special room in the...
The Best Seats in the Assembly
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Friar Reflection
The Astonishing Catch and the New Vocation
This encounter with Jesus that Peter and his companions had must have been quite shocking. They were professional fishermen. They knew all the tricks about fishing: how to fish, where to fish, and...
God’s Field
We are all aware of the divisions in our modern society. There are divisions and polarization not only in the political but also in the religious sphere. Perhaps surprisingly this is nothing new. ...
Wisdom and Folly
Today’s first reading from St. Paul is part of a cohesive thought that he has been building upon since the beginning of this 1st Letter to the Corinthians (which began with Friday’s readings and...
Fulfilled in Your Hearing
In today’s Gospel Jesus does something you and I do each Sunday. Jesus went to worship his Heavenly Father on the Sabbath. He read from the Word of God and preached a noticeably short homily. The...
Nothing Borrowed
A world of information, expert advice, and knowledge all sit at our fingertips. With all that available to us via a simple query or the use of artificial intelligence such as Chat GPT, we should...
Grace
In today’s first reading Paul greets the Corinthians with these words: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” The words of this greeting are also used as one of the...
The Woes
This is the week of “woes” as we listen to the reading of Matthew’s 23rd chapter. In English woe means sadness or distress. Seven times Jesus judges and rebukes the pharisees by saying sadness on...
Judgement, Mercy, and Fidelity
Certain things in the Word of God are easy to measure, control, and even accomplish. Paying a tithe of a certain product is rather easy. All we do is weigh our harvest and then pay the percentage....
Hypocrites
In today’s Gospel Jesus continues his denunciation of the scribes and the Pharisees. These along with the Sadducees were the religious leaders at the time of Jesus. At the time of the writing of...
Love
As a teacher I always wanted to make sure that the student focused on the essential or core element. Sometimes a student would get lost in a vast array of information as they were reviewing their...
The Invitation and the Tunic
God invites all to be part of his life, the great banquet. We like the sound of that. It’s all inclusive and we don’t have to do much. But then the parable takes a strange turn. People don’t want to...