One of the results of growing older and striving to live by faith is that my views of God have changed. As a child, God was like my father in the flesh – quiet, aloof, seemingly uninterested in my day-to-day life, and quite ...

Advent has only three full weeks this year.  Christmas Eve's being on a Sunday means that the fourth week is only a short few hours.  "So", we say-pray, "Better get with the program." We wish sincerely that we could be ...

Do yourself a favor this Advent season and just sit and savor today's first reading.  The more times I read it, the richer it became.  It pointed me in so many different directions.  But no matter which path I followed, ...

The Gospel lesson for today sets forth Jesus' teaching about life together in his kingdom. Because the Church is made up of human beings, there will be the temptation to strive for positions of power and prestige. Jesus ...

The Old Way and the New (Mt 9:14-17)|In today's Gospel, Matthew narrates a wonderful episode in which Jesus targets Pharisaical legalism with three sharp metaphors. The disciples of John the Baptist had come to ask Jesus, ...

|In the first reading today, Paul is in effect explaining to the Ephesians that all who are believers, Jews and Gentiles alike, are saved and are part of the same spiritual family. In Paul's time, there was anti-Gentile ...

Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus.|But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!"|Peter's encounter with Jesus is ...

PRE-PRAYERING | Adjectives come in three forms. The simple describes a person or thing as it is. The comparative describes a person or thing in contrast to another particular person or thing. The superlative describes a ...

For a more prayerful reception of the Word of God in this Sunday's liturgy, try to remember the noise of a storm in which you heard windows rattle, trees slap their leaves together, waves test the shore and thunder announce ...

"Jesus summoned the twelve and he sent them off two by two . . ."|The work of God is not a solitary affair.  This is very apparent from the first line of the gospel story today.  But we also have other examples.  In the ...