Once again Jesus shows his disciples and us who he really is. In a boat on the Sea of Galilee suddenly surrounded and overwhelmed by a storm, the disciples who as fishermen, would have known the...
The Storm: Terror or Faith
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Friar Reflection
Voices that Disturb
If you lived in the northern part of Israel some 750 years before Jesus, you were living during the reign of King Jeroboam II. The economy is good, the neighboring countries are envious of your...
By the Rivers of Babylon
Today’s Responsorial Psalm is the heart wrenching lament: “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.” The cause of this great lament in described in the first reading from...
The Rock
Well, this is it! Today we come to the end of the Sermon the Mount after almost three weeks of listening to excerpts from Matthew’s three full chapters. These last words of Jesus to end his Sermon...
False Prophets
In today’s Gospel Jesus continues his Sermon on the Mount. In his Sermon Jesus teaches what it means to be his disciple and what we as his disciples are called to do. At the beginning of his...
The Path and The Gate
Now that I am over 60 years old my ankles and knees don’t function correctly anymore. So, I tend to choose my exercise or walking paths with care. No more mountain paths with mud, stones, and fallen...
The Power
Today is the Solemnity of the Nativity of John the Baptist. The gospel reading is taken from Luke and describes the scene when the child is born and, against the custom of the day, receives not his...
Heart and Treasures
Jesus states clearly the most important commandments in all of Scripture: love of God and love of neighbor. These are the only treasures in the life of a Christian. Everything else should be...
The Sermon on the Mount: Prayer
An essential part of being a true human being, a religious person is maintaining a good relationship with God. Over many generations’ prayer, fasting, and almsgiving formed a central part of...
Righteous Deeds
I have always wondered about the practice of nonprofit fundraising and especially large capital campaigns that offer naming opportunities to attract seven-, eight-, and nine-figure donations from...
The New Love – Mature, Christian Love – The Cross
In the Old Testament everything about our relationship with God and others became reduced to interpretations, delineations, and limitations of God’s will. God’s law helped Israel control the human...
Withholding Forgiveness
During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus references Exodus 21 in which Moses is explaining the Torah to the people. It is a description of and an attempt to regulate fair punishment for violence so...