“What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it?” Our Lord presents us today with two practical examples of searching for and finding lost things. The second makes sense: A woman who has […]
Read more "Allowing God to Find Us"“If you are what you should be, you will set the world on fire.” These words were written by St. Catherine of Siena, a 14th Century mystic from Italy, and are a fitting response to the words of our Lord in today’s Gospel: “I have come to set the world on fire, and how I […]
Read more "Setting the World on Fire"“I guess you have to just make a leap of faith.” How often have we found ourselves saying or hearing these words, or something like them? Faith, to most of us, is the act you have to make when you just cannot understand, when rational thought fails to give an explanation. It seems a blind […]
Read more "Seeing is Not Believing"“I ain’t never seen a hearse with a luggage rack.” The words of this country song, even if not expressed with the grammatical cohesion that one could desire for the English language, ring true. Our earthly possessions are good for just that, for our life on earth, and that alone. At the end of our […]
Read more "Building Bigger Barns: The dangers of greed"It feels good to be asked for things. While sometimes we might grow impatient with people who are constantly asking for something from us, there is a satisfaction in knowing that someone else needs you. We all have a psychological need to be relied upon. This is why parents delight in giving gifts to their […]
Read more "Giving Good Gifts"St. Paul has made a spectacular claim in this Sunday’s second reading: There is something lacking in Christ’s sufferings. How could this be? How could Christ’s suffering on the Cross be lacking anything? Where could we possibly find a better example of a complete gift of self, a total outpouring of love? What more perfect […]
Read more "What is lacking in Christ’s suffering?"A soldier sent behind enemy lines into heavily occupied territory is not normally sent unprepared. Yet our Lord says to the 72 disciples He sends on mission in today’s Gospel, “I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals.” That is, he literally sends them on a journey […]
Read more "Sent as Lambs Among Wolves"Cari fratelli e sorelle, ormai siamo arrivati al mese di Novembre e, avvicinandoci alla fine del anno liturgico, la Santa Madre Chiesa, per mezzo della Santa Liturgia, ci mette nella contemplazione delle cose ultime. Ed è così che la domenica scorsa abbiamo contemplato Cristo Re, chi regna sopra la patria celeste. In tale festa abbiamo […]
Read more "The Saints Shine with the Splendor of Christ"The Sacred Liturgy sets before us a difficult theme today: the accomplishment of God’s will in the face of suffering and adversity. It is a particular feature of the ancient Roman liturgy that all of the texts of the Mass are chosen for each other and fit together. The entrance antiphon, or introit, which has […]
Read more "Forgiveness and the Problem of Evil"Most of us have probably had the experience of dealing with someone who is annoyingly nitpicky, who insists on fussing over unimportant details to the degree that it’s impossible to get anything done. Maybe it’s the person who insists on correcting every little detail while you’re speaking so that it’s impossible to have a conversation. […]
Read more "Humbly Welcoming God’s Word"
Father Gregerson 