Why do you all think that Christmas is such a big deal? We can imagine this question being posed by someone who doesn’t know much about Christianity – maybe someone from China, Iran, or North Korea. But that same question would actually be posed to us by the earliest Christians themselves! To them, today’s feast […]
Read more "The Gifts of the Magi"Most of us are probably familiar with the word “liturgy.” It refers to any public worship of the Church. Normally that means the Holy Mass, but all the sacraments have their liturgies – their official rites that they must follow (the words of absolution pronounced by the priest, the prayers said at a baptism, etc.). […]
Read more "The Priority of God in Christian Worship"Christmas is the most unlikely of events. That is probably why it has captured our hearts and imaginations for centuries – that God would break into our world not as a warrior king but as a small, vulnerable baby born into the poverty of a stable, laid in a feeding trough surrounded by straw. You […]
Read more "Interrupted by the Christchild"One hundred years ago today, at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month, the Germans and Allies signed the armistice that ended the fighting in World War I, which left 37 million dead in its wake. It was the deadliest conflict in this history of Christendom. In response, Pope Benedict XV […]
Read more "Considering our own Mortality"“Jesus … has a priesthood that does not pass away. Therefore, he is always able to save those who approach God through him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them.” Last week, towards the end of my sermon, I talked about how Jesus is a priest in the line of Melchizedek instead of […]
Read more "The Temple in Your Pocket"How do the Apostles miss it? Maybe you have had one of those moments where someone really important to you was with you in a really important moment, but they were not paying attention. My mother still gives my father a hard time about how he was distracted by an IU basketball game while their […]
Read more "Not Being Afraid to Ask Why"“From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.” Our Lord confronts today a group of religious leaders, the Pharisees, who have a serious problem. On the outside, they look great. They follow all […]
Read more "Religion That is Pure and Undefiled Before God"“Watch carefully how you live, not as foolish persons but as wise, making the most of the opportunity, because the days are evil.” Over the past few weeks, we have been reading at Mass from the Bread of Life discourse, this beautiful passage from St. John’s Gospel where our Lord explains to us the mystery […]
Read more "A Purified Priesthood"“This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.” So often we can just gloss over our Lord’s words because we have become accustomed to hearing them. We lose sight of the incredibly surprising nature of our Lord’s promises. He tells us today that if we […]
Read more "So You May Eat It and not Die"“Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” As Catholics, when our Lord speaks about the food that He will give us that endures for eternal life, our minds should go directly to the Eucharist. However, we could be […]
Read more "Working for the Food of Eternal Life"
