The Gospel Train reaches Temptation Station: Stay on Board Children! A Meditation on the Gospel for the First Sunday of Lent

There’s an old Gospel song tradition that speaks of the Christian life as a ride on the “Gospel Train.” But the Gospel Train not always and easy ride with perfect scenery. But you gotta get your ticket for the Gospel Train and stay aboard. Mysteriously, the train sometimes passes through difficult terrain and life’s temptations. …

On The Wonder of The Word of God – A Homily for the Third Sunday of the Year

The Gospel for this Sunday is continued next week and so perhaps we can await an analysis of it until then. The First reading from Nehemiah 8 is a wonderful meditation on the glory and wonder of the Word of God and it deserves our attention. The background of the text is that Israel, in …

On the 40th Anniversary of Roe, I have a big dream taking shape. Dream with me.

It’s late January in Washington DC. It is the (dreadful) 40th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade A little snow, and surely a chill. But this time every year is also marked by the warmth of tens of thousands who come to DC for the March for Life. I have marched just about every year, except …

Prophets Aren’t Perfect. They’re Prophets. A response to Critics of an American Prophet and a Defense of a Brother Blogger

Help me and another brother out here. I am getting concerned again. One of the best Catholic Bloggers, and a great promoter of Catholic presence on the Web, Brandon Vogt, is being lectured to by his “disappointed” his readers since he spoke of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a “hero and prophet.”(His post is …

Jesus does not go into the Water alone. He takes us with Him. A reflection on the Baptism of the Lord

Today’s feast of the Baptism of the Lord is a moment to reflect not only on the Lord’s baptism, but also on our own. For in an extended sense, when Christ is baptized, so are we, for we are members of his body. As Christ enters the water, he makes holy the water that will …