After all the celebrations of the Advent and Christmas seasons, we begin again what the Church calls “Ordinary Time”, a time of no special feasts, no special season. The folks gathered in the...
I can remember coming home from 3+ years of mission in Kenya, friends were driving me home, and as we wound through trees, I could see the porch light on at my home in the foothills of the Blue...
Jesus’ invitation to Philip in today’s Gospel is simple, “Follow me.” How does Philip respond? He brings Nathanael with him to follow Jesus after telling him, “We have found the one about whom...
Elizabeth Ann Seton has a personal history that we would not expect in the life of a saint: orphaned when 3 years old, married at 19 years old to a wealthy husband, mother of five children, widowed...
“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” We hear the same expression at every Mass, but do we hear the words in the same way as John the Baptist would have understood them? For...
After the death of the first twelve apostles, the Church entered the patristic stage, a time of guidance by the early fathers. Basil and Gregory come from that period. Basil lived from 329AD to...
In today’s Gospel Mary, the Mother of God, serves as a model for how we are invited to hear the Word of God. The Evangelist Luke tells us that Mary, after she had heard all the amazing things being...
Today’s gospel from St. Luke is the narration of the Presentation in the Temple. The presentation that was required 40 days after Jesus’ nativity to complete Mary's ritual purification after...
“A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more.” Sadly, this passage is all too real today as we...
Today’s readings reflect on the relationship between “seeing” and “believing.” In today’s Gospel passage from John, we hear that both Simon Peter and the “other disciple” went into the empty tomb...
Today’s readings have always struck me as oddly placed only one day after Christmas. It is the story of the protomartyr of the Christian faith - St. Stephen. While I know that the feast day is...
Today’s gospel is Mary’s prayer immediately following her encounter with her cousin Elizabeth in a scene known as the Visitation. It is part of a larger prayer known as the Magnificat and forms part...