Daily Reflections

  I would guess that very few people reading this reflection have ever heard of St. John Chrysostom who was born around 470 at Antioch, part of what we call the Holy Land. The Church honors this early teacher and theologian on this his feast day because of his many sermons and practical reflections on…

  Some years ago, there were high school courses which provided high school students with brief but intensive real-life experiences in dealing with physical special needs. This included something as elaborate as a student being assigned to 24 hours of personal care for a life-sized infant doll. This doll just happened to be fully wired…

  No matter what our personality, there are times when we’re called to celebrate and dance with abandon! This “abandon” factor does not mean that we lose control but rather the special meaning of the event or occasion calls for a special celebration of joy. It’s the difference between the short-term exuberance of winning a…

  We can wonder what it was like for St. Paul to be a prisoner in Rome between the years 60-62. Today we would likely refer to him as a political prisoner under house arrest. At any rate, he must have had a certain amount of access to writing materials and visitors. The more important…

  Are you willing to become a lighthouse? Today we commemorate St. Peter Claver who became a lighthouse in his own way in his own time. Born in Spain, he became a Jesuit and was ordained a priest in 1615 in the center of the slave trade flourishing in the Columbian city of Cartagena. He…

  Who is it, who doesn’t like birthdays? The iconic “Happy Birthday Song” can draw even the most reluctant “non-singer” into joining in both the song and the smiles of the moment. Remembering a birthday not only highlights the beginning of life but also the whole package of gifts and significant memories included in that…

  What would it be like to receive a surprise letter from someone you’ve known through the years? Having shared both wonderful and difficult times, you know that this is more than a mere letter. It could be very personal and important thoughts from your friend, thoughts that have matured over time. You would open…

  “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” I find paragraph 4—among many—in St. John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter, Dies Domini, to be a helpful commentary on the above text.   The disciples of Christ, … are asked to avoid any confusion between the celebration of Sunday, which should truly be a way…

  Our Gospel today talks about the contrast between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. It has to do with the plans of God’s heart. Jesus is the supreme prophet, sent by God to reveal to us the marvelous newness of His Father’s love. The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is but…

  “Put out into the deep water…” At the close of the jubilee year, 2000, our Holy Father, St. John Paul II used these words in some of the first lines of his Apostolic letter, At the beginning of the new millennium. How often, in his other writings and talks, he said, “Do not be…

  “It is you who have stood by me in my trials.” Jesus is addressing us who claim to be his followers. We need to be aware of where Jesus ‘walks’, where he ‘stands.’ It is always and everywhere, through all life’s trials, before and with his Father! In John 17 he will say, “I…

  In the synagogue there was a man with the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out in a loud voice, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? It strikes me that this question of the devils, is one that our society today often makes, not necessarily in so many…

  “Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up…. (he) went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day (and) …was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has…

  Our Gospel today goes deep into Christ our Light and his meaning for our lives! It was his humility which led him to the cross and that very humility which overcame Satan’s power and the evils of our world. Christ’s humility comes out of seeing His Father, God, as what really matters in this…

  I have a priest friend who was recently called to be a bishop. I cannot imagine how daunting that must be. If you are successful in ministry and flourishing, you might not want to have more added to your responsibilities. However, it is due to just that sort of achievement that will be rewarded…

  If there is one common theme about prophets, it is this: they are annoying. Prophets speak the truth. So attuned are they to the circumstances of the people and time in which these outsiders find themselves, that they are able to predict the future with the Spirit’s guidance. But the truth hurts and we…

  One of the most famous passages from St. Augustine’s incredibly candid autobiography, The Confessions, is this poem about his conversion: “Late have I loved you, beauty ever ancient, ever new: late have I loved you. You were within and I was in the external world and sought you there, and in my unlovely state…

  Most Scripture scholars agree that St. Paul was not married, not a father. Yet he speaks of the spiritual fatherhood he enacted as an apostle: “As you know, we treated each of you as a father treats his children, exhorting and encouraging you and insisting that you walk in a manner worthy of the…

  What do you do when you’ve appeared to fail? “After we had suffered and been insolently treated, in Phillipi,” writes Paul, “we drew courage through our God to speak to you the Gospel of God with much struggle.” This is an unusual reaction.  Most of the time when we are humiliated when we fail…

  We say things like, “talk is cheap,” and “actions speak louder than words.” However, in the Hebrew mind, these were one and the same. When God said, “Let there be light,” light was created. God’s word is active. In the first chapter of John’s gospel, he says that Christ is the Eternal Word that…

  When I was a young monk, I helped with demolition work in preparation for the remodeling of our seminary building. One day a large group of junior monks and our maintenance employees were gathered to help remove the blower for the chapel’s organ because we were getting a new one. A group of organ…

  The scribes and Pharisees have legitimate authority to teach God’s law, even Jesus acknowledges this fact. Yet, the sobering reality is that he is challenging every disciple to consider whether his or her preaching is in accordance with one’s practices, whether one’s actions harmonize with one’s words. Do our lives match the Gospel we…

  Years ago, the incoming freshman class would participate in teambuilding exercises on a high-ropes course near the monastery. Since I was the young, sporty monk at the time, I was given the chance to join them for these exercises. I realized quickly that you can learn a lot about a person’s personality when they…

  Jesus uses the parable of the Wedding Feast to reveal how much God the Father desires the salvation of all, but also it speaks of the sad experience of being received with indifference and hostility. Jesus knew the sadness of being rejected and mistreated. He came proclaiming repentance and love for one another, but…

  I hosted a “Discernment Retreat” several years ago. I was expecting to have men and women sign up who were primarily in their 20s and 30s. I was mistaken. I had all ages of people attend, including a woman in her 80s. I thought: “What could she possibly be discerning?” It turns out her…

  Gideon expresses his complaint and sorrow to the angel of the Lord. Israel was under Midianite oppression—it was a time of fear and spiritual decline. Gideon was hiding out, trying to save the wheat from his enemies, who were attacking and destroying Israel’s crops and livestock. The Angel’s words to Gideon are both striking…

  St. Ignatius of Loyola, in his Rules for the Discernment of Spirits is talking about why we find ourselves experiencing spiritual desolation (e.g. that feeling of disturbance or darkness of soul, which makes prayer very difficult). He writes: “There are three principal reasons why we find ourselves desolate. The first is, because of our…

  Sometimes we think that if I follow God’s will and commit myself to the Lord, everything will be easy and proceed smoothly and peacefully. Even some Christian churches promote a kind of theology that says if you live rightly and justly before God, then you will experience an absence of significant suffering and will…

  Joshua, who inherited leadership of the Israelites from Moses, makes clear to the people how demanding it is to serve the Lord. We are a fallen race who are tempted by all kinds of corrupt enticements, who frequently seek to satisfy our appetites rather than look to what will satisfy us for eternity. Joshua…

  Our Blessed Mother Mary is the premier example for all Christians in terms of following in her Son’s footsteps. Present alongside him in his public ministry, without drawing attention to herself, she shared in his work through their intimate bond. She knew her Son better than anyone else and, although she was not scourged…

  Psalm 114 relates how the Red Sea parted to allow the Israelites to cross to freedom and, likewise, how the Jordan River parted to open their way into the Promised Land. Once, while praying this psalm, the question “Why is it…O Jordan, that you turn back?” sparked in my mind that to convert is…

  We love to take things to extremes. Extremes are thrilling. It could be something as simple as running as fast as you can or listening to music with the volume cranked up, which sends endorphins rushing through your veins. The excitement of extreme activity invigorates us, but it cannot be sustained. Eventually, we will…

  I have often been struck by the tenderness of my brother and sister toward their children when they become upset. These loving parents will pull the troubled child close to them and hold them with a mix of gentleness and strength, illustrating that they recognize how fragile and precious their children are. Each child…

    Our nation and our entire world are in distress. There are limited resources in the world, which causes conflict between nations and peoples over who can possess and use these resources. Religions and societies clash over where or how they can live out their way of life. There are occasional periods of peace,…

  We have been blessed with countless gifts. We live in an age where we are afforded many luxuries such as air conditioning, endless varieties of food, safe travel conditions, and immediate communication across vast distances. Our ancestors didn’t have these things available, but we often take them for granted because they are so commonplace…

  Sometimes the Gospels give us permission to allow our imagination to fill in the blanks. We believe that the evangelists were inspired to capture the core elements of faith. We find the established oral tradition in the early Church, but that also included typical human behavior. We find it in the story of the…

  Author and historian James Walsh (who died in 1942) coined a phrase which has had amazing staying power. The title of his book, “The Thirteenth, the Greatest of Centuries,” has become a familiar phrase widely quoted by those who point to that century as indeed the gateway to the modern era of development touching…

  Mention “The Waters of Meriba” to someone, and behind the blank look they might be thinking of some summer resort or a spa. Our first reading explains this as a place where people found themselves at the extremes of the depth of despair or the pinnacle of faith. Can you imagine the emotional shock…

  St. Thomas Aquinas, building upon the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, taught that our five senses provide all our sensory knowledge. From that body of knowledge our human intellect can form universal ideas. The next step is to accept faith as a gift which takes our intellect beyond our limited ability to reason. This brief…

  It might sound like Matthew used a backpack full of audio-visual equipment to record and document the movements of Jesus in today’s Gospel. We know that was not the case. The Gospels captured the treasured oral stories preserving the memories and teachings of Jesus to written form some ninety years after He died. We…