“So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Today’s Gospel continues Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-7:28). Jesus’ teaching in today’s Gospel is the most challenging of all...
Love Your Enemies
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Friar Reflection
Love of God
Today is the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This feast celebrates the love of God. Today’s readings bring out that the “heart” of the Scriptures is God’s love for each one of us. God’s...
Sermon on the Mount: Our Interpersonal Relationships and our God
Today’s reading from the Gospel comes from the Sermon on the Mount which is Jesus’ image of a true human being. It is sort of a basic plan for Christian life, an x-ray of the soul. In presenting his...
Stingy is as Stingy Does
With all apologies to Forrest Gump, St. Paul's message in our first reading might well carry the moniker, “stingy is as stingy does.” In these verses, Paul speaks about the importance of generosity...
Paradoxes of Faith
St. Paul’s letters to the community in Corinth, both the 1st and 2nd letters, are addressed to men and women who had accepted the good news of Christ and were now trying to live it - not always...
The Fruitless Fig Tree and the Cleansing of the Temple
There is a lot happening in today’s Gospel. It is marvelous to see how a holiness, confidence in prayer, and the Word of God are all connected in Jesus’ words and actions. We see a Jesus in today’s...
Lord, have Mercy!
Today’s Gospel is the story of the healing of a blind man. His name is Timaeus, the Son of Timaeus, Bar-Timaeus. (Bar is the Aramaic word for son). This blind man, hearing that Jesus of Nazareth...
A piece of the Tapestry
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Visitation when the Blessed Virgin Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth immediately after the events of the Annunciation when the Angel Gabriel proclaimed the...
Wisdom of Sirach
The first reading for today comes from the Book of Sirach (also known as the Wisdom of Ben Sira and as Ecclesiasticus, or more literally, “Church Book.”) The author, a sage who lived in Jerusalem,...
Memorial
Today we celebrate both Memorial Day and the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of the Church. In today’s Gospel Jesus hands over the care of his mother to the Beloved Disciple: “When...
The Demands of Love
Jesus asks Peter three questions: Do you love these more than these? They were in a boat and Jesus may have been referring to the fishing equipment and the catch of fish. He may have been asking...
Jesus Prays
In today’s Gospel Jesus continues the prayer he began in yesterday’s Gospel. Jesus began his prayer yesterday with praise of God, his heavenly Father: “Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said,...