“Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Is this really our experience? I am sure that all of us have had the experience of asking for...
Prayer
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Friar Reflection
When Anger is not Helpful
A priest, on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, saw a rusty iron nail on the ground, next to one of the sacred monuments. He picked it up and decided to keep it because it would remind him of the nails...
Comes the Spirit
Today’s first reading is from one of my favorite books: The Book of Jonah. The book is only four chapters long and we are in Chapter 3. The whole Jonah and the “whale” have already happened, Jonah...
Mission and Belonging
“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” It is a great passage, a great image,...
What a mystery human freedom is!
Today, we contemplate Jesus talking about the people of certain towns of Galilee (Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum) where He had preached and performed miracles. These towns had also been a cause...
Word of God
Today’s first reading from Nehemiah describes a Jewish “Liturgy of the Word.” Since Christianity started out as a Jewish sectarian movement our Liturgy of the Word is very similar to what is...
Under the Fig Tree
Today is the Feast of the Archangels with a reading from the Gospel of John in which Jesus encounters Nathaniel under a fig tree. It is only at the end of the reading that angels get a mention: “you...
Memorial of Saint Wenceslaus
Today includes an optional Memorial in honor of St. Wenceslas of Bohemia (which today we would understand as modern Czechoslovakia). The first reading for the memorial is from 1 Peter 3:14-17 and...
Welcoming the Children
Yesterday at the 9:30 a.m. Sunday Mass I heard the voices of children. I love to hear them calling out during Mass even during my homily. It is always a sign to me that our parish is alive when we...
Words of Encouragement
In today’s first reading we hear from the Prophet Haggai, who ministered in the post exilic period when the Jewish people, under a grant from King Cyrus of Persia, returned to Jerusalem. But it was...
Seek the Lord
In today’s Gospel we hear that Herod the tetrarch was seeking to see Jesus: “Herod kept trying to see him.” Why? Herod had heard all the wondrous things that Jesus was doing. People were saying...
The Presence of Mercy
In our first reading for today’s Mass, we encounter Ezra. You might ask, “...and who is Ezra?” The genealogy of Ezra (Ezra 7:1–5) traces his priesthood back to Aaron, brother of Moses. He is also...