Prayer, fasting, and charity or almsgiving are three ancient pillars of Christian life that lead us to conversion throughout the whole year. They are very important during this season of Lent....
True Fasting: Justice and Conversion
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Friar Reflection
Turning Back
Lent is that moment, that time in the year, when we are asked to step back and take a look at what direction we should take in life. Do we act in the way the world tells us to act or do we act...
Sage Advice
The first reading is from the Book of Sirach (also known as the Wisdom of Ben Sira or as Ecclesiasticus - not to be confused with Ecclesiastes). The book is part of the Bible the Catholic Church...
Faith and Unbelief
“I do believe, help my unbelief!” This is the cry of the father in today’s Gospel. He asks Jesus to cure his son who seems to have a form of epilepsy. The father asks Jesus to do something with...
Peter the Rock?
In today’s Gospel Peter confesses that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ. Jesus begins questioning his disciples to see if they truly know who he is. At first the disciples give the answers of...
Healing of a Blind Man
In today’s Gospel we hear the story of Jesus healing a blind man. While Jesus performed many miracles or healings there are a couple of elements that make this healing story stand out. First,...
Something wicked this way comes
In the first reading for today we encounter the well-known account of Noah as he is commissioned by God to gather all living creatures that would survive the Flood. (Just for the record, please note...
The First Murder
The first reading today is from Genesis 4 and tells the well-known story of Cain and Abel. Did you notice that the whole idea of bringing an offering to God is Cain’s idea; Abel just follows along....
Resiliency in Faith
What today’s Gospel tells us about Jesus and the challenge for us: As we hear the Gospel proclaimed we see that Jesus is in Gentile territory. Did he do this on purpose? The previous incident...
The Breath of Life
The first reading today continues in the Book of Genesis where we read: “then the LORD God formed the man out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man...
Order and Purpose
The first readings from daily Mass for the first two days of this week are taken from Genesis, Chapter 1 into the opening verses of Genesis 2. It is a familiar story to all from children to...
The Beginning
For the next two weeks our first reading will be taken from Genesis (Chapters 1-11), the first book of our Bible. The first book of the Bible begins, appropriately enough, with the “beginnings:”...