Giving From The Inside

“Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish. But your insides are full of greed and wickedness!  Fools!  Didn’t the one who made the outside also make the inside? So instead, give that which is inside as alms.” Luke 11: 39-41 Luke Timothy Johnson offers a quite unique translation of Luke 11:41:[read more]

The Obedience of Faith

Through him we received grace and our apostolic mission to preach the obedience of faith to all pagan nations in honor of his name. You are one of these nations, and by his call belong to Jesus Christ. To you all, then, who are God’s beloved in Rome, called to be saints, may God our[read more]

Fear and Possessions

Whenever a strong man is fully armed and guards his palace, his possessions are secure. But when a stronger than him breaks in and wins victory, he strips off the armor on which the man had relied, and distributes his spoils. The person who is not with me is against me. The one who does[read more]

Discovering Our Ordinary Lives

For lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble. And the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch, says the Lord of hosts. But for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of[read more]

Overcoming Estrangement

He was in a certain spot praying. When he stopped, one of his disciples said to. him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”. He said to them, “Whenever you pray, say, “Father, may your name be holy!  May your kingdom come!”  Luke 11: 1-2 In the Xaverian Fundamental Principles we[read more]

Listening and Receiving

The Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled by many things. But there is need for only one. Mary chose the good part. It won’t be taken away from her.” Luke 10: 41-2 In his commentary on the stories of The Good Samaritan and of Martha and Mary in Luke 10, Luke[read more]

Letting God Be God In Us

The Lord, however, hurled a violent wind upon the sea, and in the furious tempest that arose the ship was on the point of breaking up. Then the mariners became frightened and each one cried to his god. Jonah 1: 4-5 But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the[read more]

Encounter and Prophecy

Justice is with the Lord, our God; and we today are flushed with shame, we men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem, that we, with our kings and rulers and priests and prophets, and with our ancestors, have sinned in the Lord’s sight and disobeyed him. We have neither heeded the voice of the Lord,[read more]

The Gift of Tears

Then Nehemiah, that is, His Excellency, and Ezra the priest-scribe and the Levites who were instructing the people said to all the people: “Today is holy to the Lord your God. Do not be sad, and do not weep” — for all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the law. Nehemiah[read more]

Rebuilding the Church

“How could I not look sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been eaten out by fire?” The king asked me, “What is it, then, that you wish?” I prayed to the God of heaven and then answered the king: “If it please the king, and[read more]