“My heart hath expected reproach and misery. And I looked for one that would grieve together with me, and I found no one; and for one that would comfort me, and I found none. And they gave me gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” “And I found […]

“I have indeed been taken possession of by Christ Jesus.”           Maybe the woman “caught in adulty” has not committed adultery at all. The whole episode is likely an elaborate ruse. We’re in “in the temple area,” under the watchful eyes of the Roman soldiers who were perpetually guarding the Temple precinct as the most […]

          Today is about new beginnings. Reminded last Sunday of the importance of repentance and changing our ways – “But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!” – today we rejoice with Jerusalem with the joy of the prodigal son come home.           Today, Holy Mother Church […]

“For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?”           We’re now in the very heart of Lent. For two and a half weeks we have striven to be faithful to our Lenten commitments, to […]

“This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”           Last Sunday we talked about the weapons of Christ, the arma Christi. We saw how the instruments of the Passion, which seem to be the soldiers’ weapons become Christ’s weapons with which He willingly and purposefully undergoes the Passion. Likewise, we saw that Christians, seeking to […]

Dominica I Quadragesimae 9 March 2025 “Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over, he was hungry.”           There are a lot of ways […]

Today we begin one of Holy Mother Church’s most ancient observances, the solemn fast of Lent. The ashes that we receive are a relic of the ancient order of penitents. Before the sacrament of confession because widely available in the Middle Ages, it was only possible to receive forgiveness for one’s sins after Baptism once […]

“Love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back … Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”           To lend expecting nothing back is a contradiction. If you lend without expecting anything back, you are not lending; you are giving. Why, then, does the Lord say to lend expecting nothing […]

“Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.” When was the last time you leaped for joy? Not just when was the last time you were really happy, but when was the last time you actually were so thrilled, so elated, that you were jumping up and […]