In the first reading today, we witness the Ark of the Covenant being moved into the Temple built by King Solomon. To know the story of the Ark of the Covenant is to enter into a geography and...
In our midst
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Friar Reflection
The Heartbreak of John the Baptist
In today’s Gospel we heard the well-known account of the beheading of John the Baptist. I have to admit, I wonder if John should have played the long game. He didn’t need to call out King Herod. It...
The Summons
In today’s Gospel Jesus “summons” the Twelve and sends them out to continue His work of healing. The word apostle (apostolos) comes from the Greek verb apostello, “to send.” An apostle, such as...
Faith and Refining
While the nation celebrates Groundhog Day, we as a church celebrate the Feast of the Presentation as recounted in today’s Gospel. St. Luke's narration is of the Presentation in the Temple. The...
The Cost of Healing
The Gospel passage tells us something about three people. It tells us about Jesus, the cost of healing. Each time that Jesus healed someone it took something out of Him. The point, we will never...
Unclean, Unclean
In today’s Gospel Jesus comes face to face with a man possessed by a demon. Jesus cures the man by commanding the demon: “Unclean spirit, come out of the man!” Jesus heals or purifies both the man...
Let’s not lose the battle, let’s let the seed grow
It is impossible to know how the desire for the Kingdom grows within us, but the Spirit does. We do know that God has placed a seed in each of us which is ready to germinate within us. The action of...
Living a Decent Life
In Albert Camus’ iconic 1947 novel The Plague reads like a foreshadowing of our own tragic two years of the COVID pandemic. The physician at the center of the book, Bernard Rieux, battles the...
Persistence Generosity
In the traditional understanding of the parable of “The Sower and Seed,” the focus is often on the soil as a description of our hearts, of our openness to the word of God being sown into our lives....
Conversion and Call
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the apostle. Paul was a zealous Jew who became a zealous missionary or apostle. In today’s first reading Paul offers his defense or...
Discerning Family
Today’s Gospel is, in its own way, part of a thread in Mark’s gospel in which the nature of the family of God is slowly revealed. In Mark 3:7-12, Jesus is calling and appointing 12 as apostles, the...
Naming the Team
Up to this point in his gospel narrative, Mark has shown his skills as a storyteller. He has already achieved a mounting tension in the narrative. Chapter 1 ends with Jesus’ fame and reputation as a...