General

Our readings today continue the theme of call and response.  As a child, I grew up in a small town in close proximity to a Baptist church, and I had an opportunity to watch what they did and how they…

1 Samuel 3 1 Corinthians 6 John 1 One sentence in the reading from Samuel caught my attention: “At that time Samuel was not familiar with God because God had not revealed anything to him as yet.”  The sentence made me…

For today’s homily, I was going to use three poems: one by T.S. Eliot and two responses to that poem, Medical Mission Sister Margaret Moran’s and mine. As I reread them, I discovered they were our thinking in 1990, which…

Numbers 6:22-27, Galatians 4:4-7, Luke 2:16-21 We just heard in the first reading about God telling Moses to instruct Aaron and his children just how to bless the people. A wonderful blessing God speaks to Moses: May God bless you, and keep you;May…

In my own life this feast of the Holy Family has always been a challenge. As a child it was the feast of the perfect family. It was the measure of a family – the perfect child with the perfect…

Jesus was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. What was God thinking? I walked around the dining room several times preparing for this homily, looking at all the stables or creches, French for crib – a prettier…

These readings for the fourth Sunday of Advent provide a timeless road map for our lives of faith and hope. They are as relevant today as they were thousands of years ago. The first reading, from the Book of Samuel,…

Isaiah 61:1-11.     Thessalonians 5:16-24     John 1:6-28 This is a light machine – a device that produces bright light for these winter days. Today’s readings remind us that we, too, are sources of light for one another,…

If I saw John the Baptist walking up the driveway today, I would very likely alert the campus to go on full lockdown. As I thought about him, I wondered if he would have drawn crowds of people in his…

“Be watchful and alert: you do not know when the time will come.” The readings at the end of the liturgical year are dark and almost frightening. These reminded me very much like walking into a mine, where the only light…

Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17; I Corinthians 15:20-26, 28; Matthew 25:31-46 Here we are, on the last Sunday of the liturgical year, celebrating Christ as king. For some of us, “king” may carry negative connotations — kings and their subjects, power and…

Matthew 25.14-30  In an old Rabbinic tradition regarding the final judgment, a person might be saved if on the day of judgment that person’s good actions totaled more than their bad actions.  Thus, in this bookkeeping view of judgment a…