Where do we look to find God? Sometimes we expect to find God only in the spectacular and stupendous such as the parting of the Red Sea or Jesus walking on the waters during a violent storm. In...
Where is God?
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Friar Reflection
Greater Righteousness
In today’s Gospel Jesus calls us to a “greater righteousness.” The word “righteousness” in Matthew’s Gospel means knowing and doing the will of God. We pray for righteousness in the Our Father:...
Teaching and Living the Law – The Sermon on the Mount
Today’s Gospel comes from the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew’s Gospel, the Sermon on the Mount covers three chapters that delineate a new vision, a new human being, a new way of living with God and...
Memorial of St. Barnabas
St. Barnabas was one of the prominent Christian disciples in Jerusalem, Jewish and Cypriot by birth. He was sent to Antioch as an emissary of the Church in Jerusalem and witnessed the work of the...
Prophets and Kings
When it comes to the reading selections for daily Mass, I sometimes think the first readings are on their own track, telling a story, but only in bits and pieces, starts and stops. Today we are...
Mercy of God
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. This feast and today’s readings ask us to focus on the love and mercy of God. St. Paul speaks in today’s second reading of the...
Listen and Love
The question posed to Jesus in today’s gospel seems trivial to us. Why so much concern about which commandment is important? For the people of Jesus’ time, it would have been a very important...
St. Boniface: missionary zeal
The readings for the memorial are an option for today and are well chosen for the life of St. Boniface. The account of St. Paul before King Agrippa and the gospel message of Jesus as the good...
Centering in God
Often the incident in today’s Gospel is used to justify taxes or it is used to promote a separation of religious values and duties from civil values and duties. But neither of those interpretations...
Being Fully Alive
It is but a simple, single verse from our first reading (2 Peter 1:2-7): God “...has bestowed on us the precious and very great promises, so that through them you may come to share in the divine...
Meeting of Joy and Blessing
What is the most important thing in your life? What is the main guide in our life? Those are very big questions that we often do not take time to answer. Most people tend to center their lives on...
Aliens and Sojourners
Last week I traveled to a cemetery close to Boston for the burial of a friend. Then I took advantage of the long holiday weekend to visit my hometown and family in the Adirondack Mountains. Spring...