Different Kinds of Pearls
Off the shores of the Philippines, a fisherman discovered a very large, misshapen pearl. It was not pretty. It looked more like an amoeba, with blobs and folds everywhere. He took the unusual find home and stowed it under his bed. When he moved ten years later, he...Poor Martha
Poor Martha…She works so hard while all her sister Mary does is sit around listening to Jesus. When she complains, Jesus tells her that Mary has chosen the better part. Poor Martha, she even no longer has her own feast day. In 2020 Pope Francis included her whole...Things to Treasure
The parable of the “pearl of great price” and “treasure buried in a field” are well known. Did you know that these are unique to Matthew’s gospel? “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes...Weeds and Wheat
In the “Parable of the Weeds and the Wheat” (Matthew 13:24-30) Jesus gives us His view of His disciples and of the church. They are a mix bag! Among His disciples and in the church are both weeds and wheat. Sometimes the disciples are wheat as when Jesus calls...Small Beginnings
Jesus says that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed and its growth into a tree. The point is that the Kingdom of Heaven starts with the smallest beginnings, but no one knows where it will end. In the Old Testament a common picture is of a great empire is that of...28 pages