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A Brief Directive for Church Leaders from the Acts of the Apostles
The Second reading from yesterday’s mass (5th Sunday of Easter) is very Catholic and too informative to merely pass up. It presents a Church as rather highly organized and possessed of some the structures we know to day in full form. Granted, some of these structures are in seminal (seed) form, but the ARE there. [...] Read the rest of this entry »
The Legacy of Love – A Meditation on the Gospel for the 5th Week of Easter
The title of this sermon uses the word Legacy, which refers to something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor. Perhaps the most accessible image of this is money. If I receive 100 million dollars from a dying relative I can tap into those funds and start living differently. My bills that now [...] Read the rest of this entry »
“The Pearl of Great Price” and “The Woman at the Well” beautifully retold in a short animated video
The video below is a kind of retelling of the parable of the pearl of great price, and also a bit of the story of the Woman at the Well. The parable of the pearl of great price is a brief one: Jesus said, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine [...] Read the rest of this entry »
On The Story of Mark and What it teaches us About Reconciliation
The Feast of St. Mark that we celebrated today is a reminder that the Gospel occurs in the human setting and condition. Somehow I thought of this on this feast for Mark, also known as “John Mark” was at the center of tension between Paul and Barnabas and the differences were so severe that it [...] Read the rest of this entry »
We do not want you to be like whose who have no hope – A Reflection on Modern Christian Attitudes Toward Dying
At a recent meeting wherein an elderly relative was preparing advanced medical directives, a friend of the family, a secular Jew, expressed the discomfort the speaking about dying brings something to most people. I happened to mention in passing, that for a Christian, the day we die is really the greatest day of our life. [...] Read the rest of this entry »
Our God Sits High, Yet Looks Low. A meditation on the fact that our presence on this planet is virtually invisible from Low Earth Orbit
There is a rather humorous aspect of the story of the Tower of Babel in the Book of Genesis. You likely know the basic story which begins with the men of that early time saying, Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make [...] Read the rest of this entry »
A Meditation on a Magnificent Description of The Immigrant Church of 1900-1950
Many of us who are a bit older, say age 50 and older, remember a time when the Church, at least in terms of numbers, seemed much more vigorous. And those who remember even longer, who were born before 1950 and lived in the northern cities, remember a time when Catholic parishes were like enormous [...] Read the rest of this entry »
Three Prophetic Insights from Pope Leo XIII That Still speak powerfully 120 Years Later
A reader alerted me to an interesting and insightful analysis by Pope Leo XIII of three trends that both alarmed him and pointed to future problems. He wrote of these three concerns in 1893 in the Encyclical on the Holy Rosary entitled Laetitiae Sanctae (Of Holy Joy). The Pope enunciates these three areas of concern [...] Read the rest of this entry »
What Did Jesus Call Me? A Meditation on the Gospel for Good Shepherd Sunday
The Lord says, “My Sheep hear my voice…” That’s right he called you a sheep. No come on, get a little indignant with me here! The Lord is comparing us, not to the swift eagle, , the beautiful gazelle, the mighty bear, the swift horse, the mighty lion, or the clever and intelligent dog. No, [...] Read the rest of this entry »
The Good is not the Enemy of the Better, it is its Foundation. As Seen in an Animated Video
Back when I was in seminary (24+ years ago), I was an organist, and Music Director of the Seminary. And in those years I learned an important, albeit, frustrating reality, namely that many did not always appreciate what I considered to be the finer things of Church Music. I remember one November having the Seminary [...] Read the rest of this entry »
A Pet Peeve about the New Roman Missal from a Priest Who Otherwise Loves It.
I am a big fan of the New Roman Missal. The English is edifying, and rather close to the Latin in both meaning and cadence. At times, it challenges the priest who must carefully prepare to pray it well. But that is good. Reading the prayers of the missal cold is a bad idea, and [...] Read the rest of this entry »
A Look at Some Biblical Texts in Opposition to Contraception
In the following post I seek to lay out a few of the biblical texts related to the Church teaching against contraception. This is not a post intended to give a full defense of the teaching against contraception. I have done that elsewhere, e.g. HERE & HERE & HERE This post is intended only to [...] Read the rest of this entry »
