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...
By the Rivers of Babylon
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Friar Reflection
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...
Where is God?
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...
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:...