Have you ever had the experience of being “flexed”? Where you were passed up or someone reneged on you? Or where someone neglected you, choosing someone or something over you?

I’ve been reading recently about the Arian controversy in the Church in the 4th and 5th centuries. Sounds riveting, doesn’t it?

This Sunday’s “parable” is not really a parable. It’s a question based on a fictional scenario Jesus poses to the chief priests and elders.

I’ve wrestled with this parable for years now (the parable of the workers all receiving the same wage though they work a different number of hours).

This is the part of this weekend’s parable that stands out to me...

The teaching in this week’s Gospel is about confronting a person when they “sin against you.”

“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it.” Difficult words from our Lord in this weekend’s Gospel.

The excerpt from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans this Sunday has me thinking about the experience of being pleasantly surprised.

Christology is the study of the nature of Christ. Some theologians speak of a “high Christology” and others of a “low Christology.”

Elijah hears God as a tiny whispering sound.

Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans – the part we have this Sunday (chapter 8, versus 35-39) – is one of the most beautiful things Paul ever wrote. What will be able to separate us from the love of Christ?

These are among my favorite parables of our Lord: the treasure buried in the field, the pearl of great price, and the dragnet catching all different types of fish.

Impatience is the ‘common denominator sin.’ Everyone is impatient.

I think one of the points from our first reading from the prophet Isaiah (“Just as from the heavens the rain and the snow come down and do not return there until they have watered the earth…”) is that God makes use of all suffering.

Dear Parishioners, The notion of privilege has been on my heart these several weeks. We are a privileged people. The Catholic Church and all its members are blessed and chosen specifically by God. This isn’t anything new in the tradition. Israel was also a privileged, chosen nation. “For you are a people holy to the LORD, your God; the LORD, your God, has chosen you from all the peoples on the face of the earth to be a people specially his own” (Deuteronomy 7:6). Modern soc

Our first reading is the scene of Elisha, a prophet of ancient Israel, having dinner with a prominent husband and wife. The couple enjoys their dinner with the prophet so much they make a nice guest room for the prophet and invite him to come back on his day off in the future. Elisha takes them up periodically on the offer and eventually, because of their generosity, intercedes for the man and woman so they are able to conceive a child.

I’ve noticed when I give out communion at Mass that when I say “The Body of Christ” I whisper it. I’m not sure if this simply developed out of a habit of manners–trying to keep a low voice when inside, especially inside a church–or for some other unintentional reason, but the more I think about it, the more I find whispering appropriate (if I may humbly say so myself). Why?

Last Sunday on Pentecost I gave another “history of the Catholic Church” homily, this time focusing on the split of western and eastern Christianity (Catholic and Orthodox).

Last week at the opening of the parish garden I was instructed on the box planting method used by our volunteer gardeners for each of the plots. Each garden bed is divided into a grid of 12X12 squares.

The scene of the Ascension as recounted in Acts of the Apostles (our first reading) has a few interesting details. We hear that, among the group of apostles looking up at the sky, “suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.” These two men are presumably angels–the same two inside the empty tomb on Easter Sunday. But Luke doesn’t call them angels. He calls them “men.” Likewise, Mark’s Gospel refers to a “young man” inside the tomb after the resurrection.