I remember the boys giving Sister Sirnan a hard time. She was teaching us the catechism and told us that God was omnipotent: “God can do anything.” “Can God make a rock he can’t lift? Can God make a square circle?” Needless to say, Sister Sirnan was not pleased with us. It turns out that… Read More »

“Whatsoever you do to the least, that you do unto me.” Jesus is, of course, a brother to us all but he claims a particular kinship with “the least,” with those who are suffering and hurting. Our normal tendency is to relate in a more personal way with those who are like us, part of… Read More »

One implication of the words of the prophet Isaiah is that the end result of our Lenten practices is that we become a “repairer of the breach.” What an important role at this time when breaches are everywhere — caused by racism, by xenophobia, by income disparity, by NIMBY attitudes, by plain old fear. One… Read More »

Those of us of a certain age remember a show in the early days of television called “Queen for a Day.” As near as I can recall the show consisted of various women telling the audience all of their troubles and the most pathetic of the lot was named “queen for the day” and given… Read More »

One stream in psychology suggests that all human behavior is need driven. We do this, that, or the other because of some physical, mental or social need. The prophet Isaiah suggests that we must widen our understanding of need. Our needs are not limited to ourselves as individuals. We also need to care for those… Read More »

During Ordinary Time the scriptures chosen for each day are a continuous reading, lectio continuo. The lectionary picks two books of the Bible and goes through them chapter by chapter. During Lent the two readings are specifically chosen for that day and serve to complement or complete each other. Today, for example, the Old Testament… Read More »

In 1988 there was a devastating fire in Yellowstone National Park. Almost two thousand square miles were impacted by the fire. A Park Ranger looking over the ash strewn landscape lamented that a generation would not know the park in all its beauty. He could not have been more wrong. The next year the park… Read More »

In the Man of La Mancha Aldonza challenges Sancho Panza about his decision to companion Don Quixote. “What do you get out of it,” she asks. As he stumbles around for an answer she confronts him: “You get nothing.” To which Sancho Panza answers, “I like him, I really like him.” In St. Mark’s gospel… Read More »

One can get an incorrect the idea from the story of Jesus’ encounter with the rich, young man. Looking at the story it seems there there are two levels to the spiritual life. First one becomes a commandment keeper and later one “sells what you have, give to the poor and come follow” Jesus. We… Read More »

I was in the seminary in the 60s after Vatican Council II. The seminary faculty sort of lost their bearings. They could no longer teach the way they had for the past fifty years… and the way they had been taught fifty years before that. I remember Fr. Gilbert preaching a sermon to us where… Read More »