I recently read St. Joseph and His World by Mike Aquilina (New York: Scepter Publishers. 2020). I purchased this to read with the Year of St. Joseph called for by Pope Francis (Dec. 2020-December 2021) in mind. As indicated by the title, in this book Aquilina provides perspective on the world that Joseph, spouse of […]
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – Homily
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year BNumbers 11:25-29Psalm 19:8, 10, 12-13, 14 (9a)James 5:1-6Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48 Jesus’ words today may seem shocking. “If you hand causes you to sin, cut it off…And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off…And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.” Really, does […]
New Series on Prayer
Finally, I have the details for my next series of presentations! It will be a series on prayer called, Giving our Hearts to God: What It Means to Pray. Now, I don’t profess to be an expert on prayer. In fact, I admit I struggle to pray “well” at times. Prayer can become routine. We […]
It is Not Easy to be Faithful
In today’s first reading we hear, “Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings, reproaches us for transgressions of the law and charges us with violations of our training.” This is not the only time in the Old Testament that we hear of the “just […]
What is Most Important?
We need to ask ourselves what is most important. Lots of things have importance but what is most important? We need things. We need food, clothing, and shelter to feed our physical bodies. To have these things we need money. Does that make money the most important thing? In today’s gospel for daily Mass we […]
Three Ways to Look at Discipleship
In today’s reading for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B we hear three different ways of thinking about discipleship. The first comes from the third of four servant servant oracles in the Book of Isaiah. The suffering servant is being persecuted for their faith. As they as persecuted the servant says, “I have […]
It’s Worth Doing Well
If it is worth doing, it is worth doing well. I am referring to our celebration of the Mass. It is certainly worth doing! The Eucharist is the source and summit of our Catholic faith (Lumen Gentium, 11). We know when to stand and when to kneel. We know the responses. Do we do them […]