“I am convinced that neither death, nor life … nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” St. Paul wants us to understand that God loves us no matter what we have done, no matter what is done to us, no matter what… Read More »

I find consolation when I read in St. Paul’s letter to the Romans: “we do not know how to pray as we ought.” If the great Apostle could say that certainly the likes of me can accept my frustrations in prayer. When people talk about their experiences in prayer I feel inadequate. I don’t have… Read More »

Looking around at our city, country, world we get the impression that “things are going to hell in a hand basket,” as my mother would say. The Bible says otherwise. The Bible says that all our acts of kindness and mercy and forgiveness and compassion are like seeds bringing about God’s kingdom, are like yeast… Read More »

Sts. Jude and Simon are the tenth and eleventh on the list of apostles. We know very little about them. In fact, in some of the list of apostles Jude is called Thaddeus. Hence, many refer to the saint as Jude Thaddeus. (Apparently he became the patron of hopeless causes because he was so far… Read More »

Working in another language can be tricky. For example, one our priests who was just learning Spanish wanted to say that he was embarrassed so he sort of transliterated the English and said that he was embarazado. The people started to giggle. They explained that embarazado means pregnant. That made him really embarrassed. Then there… Read More »

If I was mean to my sister my grandmother would say, “God will get you for that.” We like to think that there is some kind of cosmic balance — so much goodness gets you so much reward; so much badness gets you punished. But such thinking is more Zeus on Mt Olympus throwing thunderbolts… Read More »

There is a personality theory that says that much of our behavior is determined by our particular compulsions. Not that our compulsions are bad — some people feel compelled to be happy, others to be helpful, or peaceful, or loyal, etc. But if it is a compulsion then we are not free to do the… Read More »

In the play Fiddler on the Roof the father, Tevye, is confronted by changing traditions. His eldest daughter does not follow his wishes to enter an arranged marriage. The second daughter goes to Siberia to marry “the man I love.” He manages to accept these changes in “the tradition.” However, the third daughter marries a… Read More »

Do you ever wonder if Jesus used to drive the disciples a little nuts. Peter asks a perfectly reasonable question, “Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?”, and instead of giving an answer Jesus launches into a long story about stewards and servants. That was Jesus’ very deliberate style. By teaching in… Read More »

Probably the most famous sermon ever delivered in what is now the United States goes back to 1741, delivered by Jonathan Edwards and entitled, “Sinners in the hands of an angry God.” The theology is Calvinist which possesses a lineage going back to the doctrine of original sin as explained by St. Augustine. This, in… Read More »