Christianity roots are in Judaism. Jesus and all the apostles, including St. Paul, were all Jewish. As good Jews they would make the yearly pilgrimage to the Jerusalem Temple for the Feast of...
Parting of Ways
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Friar Reflection
Burdens and Necessities
In the first reading today, the apostles and elders, after prayer and discernment, send a message to the Gentile believers. And at the heart of that message is this line: “It is the decision of the...
Joy
We have been listening to Jesus’ farewell words to the apostles at the Last Supper. These are his last catechesis. He speaks about his passion, death, and resurrection. It seems that at that moment...
The Essentials
The first reading today begins with a very strong claim: “Unless you are circumcised according to the Mosaic practice, you cannot be saved.” That is not a small disagreement; it is a statement about...
Peace
The Easter season is a time to renew ourselves in the basic Christian virtues that grow out of our experience of the risen Christ in our daily lives. St Paul calls the basic virtues faith, hope, and...
The Advocate
In today’s Gospel Jesus makes a promise to his first disciples and to all of us. His promise is to send the gift of the holy Spirit. Right before today’s Gospel Jesus promises that he will never...
Mary and Service
Today we start the month of May which is dedicated to Mary. May is a time of Easter joy. May is a time of beauty where spring is in full swing with all the new flowers starting to bloom and the...
A Word of Exhortation
In today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles Paul gives the homily (“word of exhortation”) during a Sabbath synagogue service at Antioch in Pisidia. The synagogue service was much like...
The Light
Jesus’ comments in today’s Gospel reading were made at the time of his triumphal entry into Jerusalem just before his passion, death, and resurrection. He was surrounded by a large crowd of...
Voices
In the gospel reading for today we heard Jesus tell some bystanders who wanted Jesus to plainly say that he was the Messiah. Jesus replied: “But you do not believe because you are not among my...
The Good Shepherd
Shepherds were very common in Jesus’ time and in the area where Jesus went about preaching and teaching. So, it made sense to use them as concrete images for his teaching. In the Old Testament...
The Call of St. Paul
Today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles is the story of St. Paul’s call or conversion. We have three accounts of Paul’s conversion in Acts (9:1-18; 22:3-16; 26:2-18) as well as Paul’s...