Blog of the Archdiocese of Washington
Many of us have rightly, lamented the steady erosion of the Thanksgiving holiday. Over the past decade or so that hideousness of people camped out, sometimes for days, in front of stores to take advantage of “Black Friday” sales grew more widespread. This next intensified to stores opening at midnight, then at 8 PM on …
Continue reading “On The Loss of The Thanksgiving Holiday…Is there anything we can do?”
Personal Testimonies are supposed to be three to five minutes. I suspect that my written version of how I met Jesus violates that rule. But, since many of you have known me a while, I think that I have to add a few details that I don’t when I am speaking to people who know …
Continue reading “He Kindled a Fire that Never Died Away – How I Met Jesus”
It’s one of the stranger dialogs that occurs in the Gospel. We read it last week in daily Mass and it is difficult not to rejoice in the aplomb of Jesus has he says it. Some Pharisees, likely disingenuous in their motives, approach Jesus to warn him that he needs to leave immediately: Go away, …
Continue reading “A Word of Encouragement in one of Jesus’ Stranger Sayings”
The Gospel today is of the familiar and endearing story of Zacchaeus, a man too short to see Jesus, who climbs the tree (of the Cross), encounters Jesus, and is changed. The danger with familiar stories is that they are familiar and we can miss remarkable qualities. Perhaps it is well that we look afresh …
Continue reading “To Make a Long Story Short – A Homily for the 31st Sunday of the Year”
Men and Women, of course, are very different. Vive la différence! This difference also reaches our spiritual lives and even effects liturgical preferences. Without seeking to cause a firestorm of opinions, one of the critiques of modern liturgy is that it has tipped the balance decidedly toward a more feminine expression, especially in the area …
Continue reading “On Spiritual Gifts and Holy Attire as Seen in a Beer Commercial”
One of the things that most amazes me about the universe is its order. And its order is even more striking for its context of another widespread force: disorder, the tendency of things to fall apart. Let me explain. When we look at things we can observe that, left to themselves, things tend to fall …
Continue reading “Order! Order! A Meditation on how the mystery of order proclaims the glory of God”
The Washington Post recently published and article by Reza Aslan entitled Five Myths about Jesus. At one level the article is the “usual fare” from those who wish to discredit the Biblical text and make a little money in the process. Indeed our deconstructionist times love to heap scorn on our Sacred text. Almost no …
In the Gospel for today about the rich man and Lazarus the Lord gives us some important teachings on judgment and on hell. Now it is a fact that we live in times where many consider the teaching on Hell to be untenable. Many struggle to understand how a God described as loving, merciful and …
Continue reading “The Hell There Is – A Homily for the 26th Sunday of the Year”