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When I first read this parable I thought “Jesus, this parable is a perfect fit for today’s world!” Let’s take a look at the actors in the parable and at their parallel in our imagination. The rich man: Amos would…
Always the question: “As I consider the readings in today’s liturgy, what do they say for me now?” As you know the Encyclical Letter from Pope Francis, Laudato Si’, has become an important guide post for the Loretto Community as…
Exodus 32 1 Timothy 1 Luke 15 This morning’s Gospel tells the story of our confusions about enough. Enough trouble, enough loss, enough yearning, enough resentment. And enough love to embrace all those losses, yearnings, resentments. Love enough to celebrate…
“Who can know God’s counsel?” asks the book of Wisdom. We are timid and find it very hard to grasp the world around us – except that sometimes, says Wisdom, we do receive guidance from the Holy Spirit to make…
When I came up this hill at the ripe old age of 18 to give my life to God as I understood what that meant at the time, we had a very different scene around here. We all dressed alike…
Luke 13: 22-30 Today’s readings are hard ones — I found them both uncomfortable and challenging. Jesus sounds distant, harsh even, hardly projecting mercy or compassion. Or projecting a welcoming and open kingdom of God. He talks about the narrow…
When I first read this Gospel it was perplexing. When Jesus says “I have come to set the earth on fire” I am reminded of the raging fires in the West and in Europe, and it is hard to attribute…
Wisdom 18:6-9 Hebrews 11-12 Luke 12:32-48 In today’s Gospel, Luke’s audience is concerned about how they will provide for themselves for the long haul, about whether or not the claims of the Kingdom are more important than their daily demands, and…
Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-21; Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11; Luke 12:13:21 Vanities of vanities! All things are vanity! I remember Carroll Stuhlmueller saying that line. It was when we were in the novitiate — Judy, Jeanne, Mary Ann McGivern, Anndavid, Barbara Nicholas, I…
Genesis 18:20-32 Colossians 2:12-14 Luke 11:1-13 Today’s readings are very familiar, and each is rich in multiple meanings and deep, compassionate reassurance. The most familiar reading, of course, is the Gospel, which introduces the prayer Jesus taught his disciples, a…
Recently, on CNN, I watched an interview with a man named Aaron Stark, who said that when he was in his late teens he could very easily become a mass murderer. In fact, he was ready to do something terrible.…
We see the long pattern of human behavior and the even longer pattern of God’s invitation in today’s readings. Starting with the Book of Deuteronomy, which was written 700 years before Jesus became human, Moses reminds the people to listen…