Friar Daily Reflection
Christ is Risen – He is Truly Risen
The first reaction of the disciples who saw the risen Christ in today’s Gospel was being startled and terrified. Even with the announcement from the disciples who encountered the risen Lord on the road to Emmaus, they still thought they were seeing a ghost. Jesus...
The Breaking of the Bread
In today’s Gospel we have the well-known story of Jesus’ appearance on the road to Emmaus. Luke tells us that the disciples came to recognize Jesus “in the breaking of the bread.” This phrase was the way the early church referred to the Eucharist or the mass. Two...
Grief and New Life
Mary Magdalene went to the tomb of Jesus expecting only death. She went full of overpowering grief and sadness. All of her hopes about a savior and messiah were destroyed by death. She arrives at the tomb and finds it empty. Everything in her life experience leads her...
Resurrection Faith
Today’s gospel from St. Matthew is familiar to all readers: Jesus has been crucified, died, and laid within a tomb guarded by soldiers and watched by Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary.” The Sabbath has passed and dawn approaches on the first day of a new week. The...
We mourn his passing
This was the pontiff who took the name “Francis” in homage to Catholicism’s most iconic and beloved saint, the “little poor man” of Assisi; the pope who rejected the marble and gold of the Papal Apartments in favor of the Domus Santa Marta, a modest hotel on Vatican...
Love and Betrayal
Today is known as “spy Wednesday” and we see Judas setting up Jesus’ arrest with the religious leaders. There are hundreds of theories about why Judas betrayed Jesus. The Gospel simply says he was a despicable thief. Some theories say he was trying to force Jesus to...
Will you sing?
The refrain from today’s psalm is “I will sing of your salvation.” Will you? If you are the average Catholic your answer might be “yes” but I wonder what you answer would be if the question was “Will you sing of your salvation outside of Mass or your shower?” Granted...
Anointing
In today’s Gospel Mary performs a loving and prophetic action. “Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil…and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair.” Her actions provoked different responses. Judas, seemingly with genuine concern for the poor but...
Trust and Faith
Life is full of difficulties and rarely goes as we plan or as we want. This can produce in us a lot of different attitudes: despair, anger, sadness, dullness, insensibility, apathy, restlessness, or depression – even violence. Some people get struck in those negative...
I Am
In today’s Gospel Jesus proclaims his divinity by speaking like God. In the book of Exodus God reveals himself to Moses with the following words: “I am who I am…This is what you will tell the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.” (Exodus 3:14). In today’s Gospel...