Spiritual Reflections

I must admit that the preparation of this homily comes at a very mind-disturbing time.  How to keep concentrated on a Gospel text when the United States of America is faced with the challenge of acknowledging the social and economic…

Matthew 14: 22-33 Last Sunday’s Gospel and homily spoke of John the Baptist’s disciples coming to tell Jesus that John had been beheaded.  Jesus would have to be thinking that he might be next.  He and his disciples went off…

Isaiah 55: 1-3           Ps 145                   Romans 8: 35-39                   Mt 14: 13-21 In today’s liturgy all the readings have the same simple message: Love permeates the world. God loves all of us and will not let us down. We have nothing to fear.  This…

In our first reading today, King Solomon dreamed that God appeared to him and said, “Ask something of me and I will give it to you.” Solomon asked for an understanding heart so he would always know what was right.…

Today Matthew’s Gospel presents three parables. The kingdom of God is like a farmer who had planted his field with good seed, but an enemy had come in and sown weeds that were sprouting alongside the grain. The kingdom of God is…

As I began to prepare this homily, I thought about the fact that this is the last day of the Assembly and you’re probably mentally and emotionally worn out.  Right?  As Sister Regis Marie said to me one time when…

“The Spirit of God dwells in you!” Powerful words, Transforming words. “The Spirit of God dwells in each of us.” What do those words mean to you? Are they just words or do they really help to see life differently?…

Matthew 10:37-42 What I’ll be saying this morning can’t really be called a homily. I won’t be teaching anything; it’s just my own reflection on a Gospel passage that troubles me, and I truly don’t know how to talk about it. These…

Jeremiah 20:10-13, Matthew 10:26-33 “Fear no one,” we just heard read at the beginning of today’s Gospel.  Jesus said to the Twelve, “Fear no one.”  To back up this command, to give the Twelve a reason to behave this way,…

Today’s feast of Corpus Christi is about sacraments.  It encourages us to reflect on the ways God uses the most simple human realities to bring us to the holy, how Grace and Divine Love are given to us through the…

One of my favorite Peanuts comics shows Linus, Lucy and Charlie Brown looking at the clouds and reporting what they see.  Linus sees Beethoven, Lucy sees the Statue of Liberty and Charlie tells them he sees nothing.  Later, Lucy asked…

Recently, in my reading I came across this sentence that caught my attention: We like to think that we base our beliefs on evidence, but far more   often we arrange the evidence to fit our beliefs, distorting or excluding what won’t…