In ordinary time we read the books of the Bible chapter by chapter. The gospels leading up to Lent the year are from the Gospel of Mark. The epistle for the next month is the Letter to the Hebrews. We don’t know the origin or the author of this document. Examining its content suggests that… Read More »

From now until Lent we will be reading from the Gospel of St. Mark chapter by chapter. The gospel begins with the “good news” that the “kingdom is at hand” and with the call of the first disciples. Jesus is then portrayed as an authoritative teacher and as someone with power of the evil spirits.… Read More »

Ordinary Time. After the Advent and Christmas seasons we spend the next few weeks leading up to Lent in Ordinary Time. Does anyone remember Sexagesima Sunday? The scripture readings in ordinary time are done as a lectio continua, going through the books of the Bible chapter by chapter. The gospel during these days is from… Read More »

Being filled with expectation can be a mixed bag. We happily wait in expectation for the baby to be born. We anxiously wait in expectation for the test results from the hospital to come back. We resignedly wait in expectation for the light to change. We warily wait in expectation for the other shoe to… Read More »

In a movie about Gale Sayers (the prototypical male weepie) the great Chicago Bear said: “God is first. My family and friends are second. I am third.” That is not the typical value system in our culture. We are told to “look out for #1.” The contemporary psychological emphasis on self-actualization makes the individual the… Read More »

“So there are three who testify, the Spirit, the water, and the Blood, and the three are of one accord.” This passage from the first epistle of St. John has been commented on and wrestled with throughout the ages. During the times in which the epistle was written there was a great controversy over the incarnation… Read More »

The number of young adults leaving the Church has become a flood — perhaps as high as 85% both Catholic and Protestant no longer practice the faith. In a recent report on this phenomenon entitled Going, Going, Gone one of the authors, Robert McCarty, observed that many of these young adults have a greater sense of responsibility… Read More »

The Bible does not look at things in the same way we do. For example, in the Bible the opposite of faith is not doubt but certainty. Faith and doubt are two sides of the same coin but certainty is something altogether different. In the first epistle of St. John we are given another set… Read More »

Taking a selfie is the perfect metaphor for our culture. The modern person places themselves in the center of the picture. The metaphor in the Bible is different. God is at the center of the picture. Even our spiritual lives can be influenced by the spirit of this age as we strive to “improve” our… Read More »

My guess is that if you asked his contemporaries what they thought about Jesus they would answer, “He’s the miracle worker from Galilee.” The Gospel writers are careful to point out that miraculous healing was only part of the ministry of Jesus. “He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel… Read More »