Spiritual Reflections

The very familiar Gospel story of Lazarus’ death and rising has so many Christian themes running through it: death and dying, of course; life and hope; faithful friendship; rising and resurrection. And through all these themes runs the main theme…

There are some lessons to be learned from the man blind from birth. His healing allows us to look at both the physical aspects of light in relation to sight, and spiritual insight as enlightenment, another form of vision that…

We have two complete accounts here today, the recitation of the commandments and the cleansing of the temple. They are each so familiar and so solidly constructed that I had a hard time finding my way into them. The psalmist…

“This my beloved Son. Listen to Him.”  The readings for today all speak of death and life. God orders Abraham to offer his son as sacrifice. Paul teaches the Christian community in Rome how God did not spare his son…

Genesis 9:8-15 1 Peter 3:18-22 Mark 1:12-15 Today is the first Sunday of Lent.  So, my question to you is: How has your attitude toward Lent changed throughout your life?  For me, in my very early life it was always…

Hansen’s Disease is a frightening, painful disease that for centuries was only cured by death. It is highly contagious, which as you know, fostered isolation and fear of anyone who might have contracted it. The Hebrew laws forbade lepers to…

Today we go from abject failure to a light at the end of the tunnel. I know I have had “Job” moments in my life journey. Debilitating health conditions, the military takeover in Chile, the divisions in the U.S. that…

Deuteronomy 18:15-20, Mark 1:21-28 Jesus is in Capernaum. It is early in his public life. Things go well. In Mark’s Gospel before the section we just heard, Jesus had met Simon and Andrew, then James and John. He had asked…

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…