Recently someone remarked to me that sometimes the Catholic Church seems to be a collection of rules just for the sake of rules. I could provide a long list of examples, but I suspect you have in...
Rules
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Friar Reflection
It’s About Communicating
Butchers sign, ‘Try our sausages, None like them’. Tailors guarantee, if the smallest hole appears after six months wear, we will make another one absolutely free. Lost, a small pony belonging to a...
Evident to us
Our first reading today is taken from the 1st missionary trip of St. Barnabas and St. Paul. In Acts 13 and 14, the intrepid disciples go from Asia Minor to Cyprus, back to the mainland at Antioch,...
Word of Exhortation
In today’s first reading we hear Paul preaching in the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia. Much like our Eucharist, this synagogue service begins with the “reading of the law and the prophets.” Paul...
Doing the Works of Jesus: Living Beyond Sin and Death
Throughout the Gospels we see the doubts, questions, misgiving, errors, worries, and musings of the apostles. Overall, we see that their reactions are not that different than our own. Their humanity...
Feast of St. Athanasius
In today's gospel, Jesus is asked: “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” (John 10:24). I am sure that if among Jesus’ disciples there were folks...
God Made Me Do It
Why would you do such a thing? This question was put to Peter in today’s first reading. What did Peter do? “You entered the house of uncircumcised people and ate with them.” (Acts 11:3). Some...
The Resurrection: Get Up and Go
It is truly amazing and awesome to see how the resurrection affected the early disciples. Today we see how open Philip was to the promptings of the Spirit. Amid his activities and his ministry, he...
Bread of Life
In today’s Gospel Jesus declares: “I am the bread of life.” Bread and water were essential to life and survival in Jesus’ time. If you didn’t have bread you died of hunger and if you didn’t have...
Humility: vice or virtue?
One afternoon in the synagogue, a rabbi was overcome with rapture and threw himself to the ground proclaiming, “Lord, I am nothing!” Not to be bested, the cantor prostrated himself and exclaimed,...
What can we do?
So they said to him, "What can we do to accomplish the works of God?" Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent." (John 6:28-29) Accomplishing...
Mary Magdalene’s Call into the Resurrection
Today we are celebrating mass with our grade school children. That is why the Gospel we are using is different from the one scheduled in the Roman lectionary. If I were planning the resurrection, I...