Peter’s question in today’s Gospel is a question all of us have asked: “How often must I forgive?” Forgiveness is difficult, sometimes it might even seem to be impossible. There are people who...
Forgiveness
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Friar Reflection
Fraternity vs Fratricide
“It’s mine you can’t have it!” I am sure that we have heard these words at times from a petulant child or perhaps we have even heard ourselves speaking these words. Certainly, Christians have...
Cast Away
The prophet Micah preached to Jerusalem, but he was not from the city. He was an outsider from the farming village of Moresheth in the Judean foothills. You can imagine how the people, priests, and...
In Good Company
God can make good things happen even from evil. Our First Reading relates how Joseph’s brothers plotted against him. The Responsorial Psalm describes how God used the events in Joseph’s life for the...
What Are We Missing?
Martin Rios is a TSA officer at Portland International Airport – the Portland that is in Oregon. He was called to the checkpoint to translate for a Spanish-speaking family who was lost and...
Being Faithful
I wonder if St. Matthew had been a person of our age he might have written: “Then the helicopter mom of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons.” It is great that Mrs. Zebedee wants the...
Repent and Repeat
One of the most common things one hears in the Sacrament of Reconciliation is the sin of gossip. It has been said that the act of gossip is like buying a chicken in the marketplace, feathers and...
Compassion and Forgiveness
“But to the Lord, our God, belong compassion and forgiveness” In today’s first reading from Daniel we hear the affirmation (confession) that the Lord is compassionate and forgiving. As Daniel prays,...
Righteousness
“I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.” In the Gospel of Matthew “righteousness” is doing the Will of...
What We Need
When I was young, my loving grandmother took care of me while both my parents were on vacation one year. One day, as the Bakery truck drove through our neighborhood, selling bread and other baked...
A Heart Contrite and Humble
David, son of Jesse – the one who became King of Judah and Israel – anointed as a young lad, the one who defeated Goliath, the one who established Jerusalem as the holy city and brought the Ark of...
I am…
When you put your ego ahead of the good of all, when your need to control becomes more important than the success of the community or company: Who do you say that I am? When that obnoxious,...