“O stupid Galatians! Who has bewitched you…Are you so stupid?” It seems that St. Paul has never learned the lesson that the students of St. Francis School know so well: “You never call anyone...
Friar Reflection
Christian Prayer – Action and Trust in the Father
Our relationships with other people, with God, with our environment, and with the events of our life (history) shape and change us over time. I remember when I was on vacation in New York City on...
St. Francis of Assisi
Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi and there are special readings for today’s feast: Sirach 50:1,3-4, 6-7; Galatians 6:14-18 and Matthew 11:25-30. St. Francis is of course the...
The cost of being in love
Our gospel is the well-known story referred to as the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). The reading opens with a question posed to Jesus: “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal...
An Invitation to Wisdom
The first reading this week has been taken from the Book of Job. It is considered to be one of the scrolls belonging to the Wisdom category and is a narrative that, in its own way, attempts to...
Archangels
“You will see heaven opened and the angels…ascending and descending.” Jesus makes this promise to us, his disciples, in today’s Gospel. The disciple Nathanael is amazed that Jesus seems to know...
Jesus is the Only Center
Today we have a collection of saying and incidents in Jesus’ life that help us to focus on a true and good relationship with Jesus as the center of all things in our lives. There are many reasons to...
Lessons from Suffering
Job was nearly crushed by the pain of suffering. He tore his robe, shaved his head, and fell to the ground when he heard that his children had died (Job 1:20). And yet in the midst of such pain and...
The Messiah of God
Who is Jesus? Each of us may give a slightly different answer. In today’s Gospel Jesus asks both a general question and a specific question. The general question is “Who do the crowds say that I...
Herod and His Circus
Probably the most important characteristic of a true disciple is the capacity to listen. Hearing and seeing alone are not enough. Listening is having the disposition to conform oneself to the...
Feast of St. Matthew
Today is the Feast of St. Matthew the Apostle, the author of the Gospel of Matthew. He is identified as a tax collector for the Roman authorities (Mt 9:9 and 10:3) In similar passages both Mark 2:14...
The Mother of Jesus
Our family is always concerned about us. Our parents continue to worry about us even when we have grown up and moved away. I learned that I could not tell my mother not to worry about me, it was...