Friar Daily Reflection
Light
If you have ever been in a blackout, you know how important light is. We stumble and grope about if we don’t have light. As we get older, we notice it gets harder and harder to see if there is not enough light. Light is vital to our daily wellbeing. In Jesus’ day...
Sharing Forgiveness and Love
Today’s Gospel tells us of an encounter that Jesus had with two people at a dinner invitation. First was the uninvited woman who manages somehow to get into the house and secondly the host. The woman is identified as a sinful woman. So, her sins must have been of a...
You and Your Generation
Jesus looks out on the folks of his generation and see resistance to God’s plan. Even though his presence was announced by the John the Baptist and despite his own presence there, the people resisted God’s action in their lives to save them. They are like a bunch of...
Moving Parts
Historically, humans have always formed tribes, clans, and eventually cities, nations, and empires, driven by the need for cooperation, structure, and survival. It’s a natural part of human development. It serves as a way of managing resources, cooperation, and...
Worthy
Whether it is a business meeting, a social gathering, a volunteer organization planning meeting or any number of similar situations - and you discover you are not invited. Our reactions vary depending on our expectations, track record on previously having been...
Driven
What drives you? What is your passion? What are the parts of your life that are intrinsic to who you are? This is more than a question of identity. I am a Catholic priest, a Franciscan friar, a Naval Academy graduate, former nuclear submariner, and the list can go on....
Judgement: Love Your Enemies
Today we continue to listen to the Sermon on the Plain from Luke’s Gospel. Now Jesus announces how deep our conversion must go. Look at how we try to justify our hatred of others, and our actions based on that hate. In English the main phrase is translated ‘love your...
Sermon on the Plain-The X-Ray Vision
In Luke’s Gospel Jesus begins his public life ministry by going up a mountain to pray and choose his apostles. Then he comes down onto a plain and wades right into the crowd of folks there to begin healing their daily life. After all those healings which demonstrate...
Prayer, Call, and Action
Today in the Gospel of Luke we find Jesus at the beginning of his public ministry. In today’s group organizational theories, he would be organizing his team, setting-up his mission statement, deciding goals, and picking objectives. Instead, we see that Jesus has a...
Outside the Camp
Although the expression “outside the camp” appears nowhere in today’s reading, it is a core biblical idea at play in both today’s first reading from the 1st Letter to the Corinthians and gospel passage from Luke. In Sacred Scripture, the expression "outside the camp"...