Friar Daily Reflection
Joy
We have been listening to Jesus’ farewell words to the apostles at the Last Supper. These are his last catechesis. He speaks about his passion, death, and resurrection. It seems that at that moment the apostles did not comprehend all that he was announcing. In John’s...
The Essentials
The first reading today begins with a very strong claim: “Unless you are circumcised according to the Mosaic practice, you cannot be saved.” That is not a small disagreement; it is a statement about who counts—about what is necessary to belong to God. And the early...
Peace
The Easter season is a time to renew ourselves in the basic Christian virtues that grow out of our experience of the risen Christ in our daily lives. St Paul calls the basic virtues faith, hope, and love (charity). Peace comes from those virtues. Our capacity to live...
The Advocate
In today’s Gospel Jesus makes a promise to his first disciples and to all of us. His promise is to send the gift of the holy Spirit. Right before today’s Gospel Jesus promises that he will never abandon us: “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” (John...
Mary and Service
Today we start the month of May which is dedicated to Mary. May is a time of Easter joy. May is a time of beauty where spring is in full swing with all the new flowers starting to bloom and the leaves of the trees have painted everything green again. We just had our...
A Word of Exhortation
In today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles Paul gives the homily (“word of exhortation”) during a Sabbath synagogue service at Antioch in Pisidia. The synagogue service was much like our Liturgy of the Word of Mass. There are prayers and hymns and then...
The Light
Jesus’ comments in today’s Gospel reading were made at the time of his triumphal entry into Jerusalem just before his passion, death, and resurrection. He was surrounded by a large crowd of enthusiastic disciples who each saw him in their own way as a new prophet, a...
Voices
In the gospel reading for today we heard Jesus tell some bystanders who wanted Jesus to plainly say that he was the Messiah. Jesus replied: “But you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them...
The Good Shepherd
Shepherds were very common in Jesus’ time and in the area where Jesus went about preaching and teaching. So, it made sense to use them as concrete images for his teaching. In the Old Testament Jewish Kings and other political and religious leaders were describes as...
The Call of St. Paul
Today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles is the story of St. Paul’s call or conversion. We have three accounts of Paul’s conversion in Acts (9:1-18; 22:3-16; 26:2-18) as well as Paul’s own description of his experience on the road to Damascus: “For you...