Ezekiel found himself in a time of dire circumstances.  Under the cruel monarch Nebuchadnezzar,  he and his fellow countrymen had been forcefully taken from their homes in Israel to captivity in Babylon.  Ezekiel's world ...

Jeremiah's oracle rebukes the failed leadership of Israel's and Judah's kings in the image of shepherds who have failed in their role as caretakers of their flocks, a role entailing leading, feeding and protection. The ...

"I myself will look after and tend my sheep." (Ez 34:11)||"The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want." (Ps 23:1) |"Are you envious because I am generous?" (Mt 20:15) |For me today's readings are summed up in ...

So the owner of the vineyard pays the workers who bore the burden and heat of the day the same salary he paid the guys who were hired at five o'clock in the evening. No one can hear that parable about the workers in the ...

PRE PRAYERING | For those preparing to enter the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil, the readings for today form the context for the second Sunday of "the Scrutinies." The candidates for entrance are asked to, or more ...

Our five senses can and do trick our brains into thinking something is one reality when it is actually another. Your taste can tell you it is a hamburger when in fact it has no meat at all. Your touching fingers may convey ...

In today's first reading, two elders, who double as judges, attempt to seduce the innocent Susanna. Being Joachim's wife, she refuses their advances and cries out for help. When her protectors arrive, the lecherous old men ...

Behold, the Lord comes to save His people!|The readings for the middle of the first week of Advent are full of joyous anticipation for the coming of the Lord. To symbolize the great times to come, we are led to imagine ...

A few years ago one of my younger nephews was traveling with his siblings and their mother. While pulling out of a drive-in restaurant, with French fries on his lap, a hamburger in one hand and a malt in the other, he asked ...

I feel very fortunate to have been chosen to write a daily reflection for this day, "All Souls Day." Recently, my wife's aunt passed away from a sudden heart attack. She was only 59. Although she had been having complications ...