When Barnabas arrived and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to remain faithful to the Lord in firmness of heart, for he was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and faith. Acts 11: 23-24 Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good…[read more]
When Paul had finished speaking he knelt down and prayed with them all. They were all weeping loudly as they threw their arms around him and kissed him, for they were deeply distressed that he had said that they would never see his face again. Then they escorted him to the ship. Acts 20: 36-38…[read more]
“When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.” John 15: 26-27 Adrian van Kaam would say that “we are tradition through and through.” By…[read more]
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain…[read more]
Yesterday the White House asked the Congress to appropriate 4.5 billion dollars for the “crisis” at the southern border of the United States. Admittedly there is a developing humanitarian crisis there. Yet, the crisis is the result of a politically driven administration policy, the goal of which was exactly to precipitate a crisis. So, the powerful created a reality that now becomes the “work” of the rest of us.…[read more]
Mary, thinking that he is the gardener, says to him, “My lord, if you have carried him off, tell me where you put him, and I will take him away.” Jesus says to her, “Mary.” Turning, she says to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni” (which means “Teacher”). Jesus says to her, “Do not cling to me,…[read more]
“If I give myself glory, my glory is nothing. It is my Father—of whom you say, ‘He is our God’—who gives me glory; and you have not known him, but I know him. And if I say I do not know him, I shall be a liar like you; rather, I know him and keep…[read more]
As one who came of age in the Church immediately following the Second Vatican Council with its proper restoration of the meaning of the Incarnation for our humanity, I have always found the foundational spiritual teaching of today’s reading from Jeremiah a difficult one to comprehend fully and truly appreciate. “Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings. . . .” Yet, if I hear the entire sentence which qualifies the “curse” as applying to one who trusts human beings solely, then I can begin to recognize its truth in my own experience.…[read more]
Adrian van Kaam says that every human person we encounter is an appeal to us. He describes that appeal as, “Please be with me and for me.” Van Kaam is saying that whatever we “think” we are asking for, we are always, at a deeper level, making this appeal for the presence of the other with us.…[read more]
On this Ash Wednesday, we are at first summoned by the words of Joel to “return to me with your whole heart.” When I was a boy, my mother would on every Ash Wednesday repeat the words of one of her colleagues at work. “Oh, this is the day that all the Catholics come to work with dirty faces.” Unless the word “return” strikes us to the core of our being, all today is is the one on which we walk around with dirty faces.…[read more]
When Barnabas arrived and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to remain faithful to the Lord in firmness of heart, for he was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and faith. Acts 11: 23-24 Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good…[read more]
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