"If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him." Matthew|As a kid growing up in a large farm family, it never ...

“When the just cry out, the Lord hears them, and from all their distress he rescues them.” Psalm 34 || Some years ago I was in the midst of a family crisis and begging God for patience and guidance. The situation was out ...

I'm imagining her as an older, modern woman _ gray haired, wearing slacks and a sweater, calm, wise and compassionate. Over coffee she's explaining how she has survived her life.|| It started the day that an angel turned ...

Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome|If you sometimes doubt that your life has any value, today's readings should dispel those fears.|We are precious in the eyes of God. He will help us in our time of distress. That's the ...

"Judgment is stern for the exalted for the lowly may be pardoned out of mercy but the mighty shall be mightily put to the test ...for those in power a rigorous scrutiny impends."||A favorite student dropped into the office ...

"'Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children's scraps.' Then he said to her, 'For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.'"||In this passage Jesus does almost a Simon Cowell number on a ...

"Dear Lord,|I'm offering you this day. Please help me to get through it. Please keep the kids and my husband safe and help me get everything done that I have to do."||It's early in the morning and I'm up walking, saying ...

When I was a first grader, our teacher had us line up in order of our class standing to read, recite and answer questions. A student who could answer a question which the person in front of him/her missed, moved one step ...

“He set singers before the altar and by their voices he made sweet melodies, he added beauty to the feasts and solemnized the seasons of each year so that when the Holy Name was praised, before daybreak the sanctuary would ...

“It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain” … John||"It was not you who chose me but I who chose you ..."| In mind's eye, I'm back on the dusty playground of ...