“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"“Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her.” These are the words of the traditional entrance antiphon for today’s Mass, which gives it the name, “Laetare Sunday.” On this Sunday, the Church allows a respite from the sobriety that […]
Read more "Coming into the Light"What does proclaiming Christ crucified have to do with being a joyful disciple? That is the theme that I want to explore today, but first, just a little review of where we have come from so far in our Lenten exploration of discipleship: The first week we explored what it means to be a disciple […]
Read more "Foolishness and a Stumbling Block"Lent is a great time for us to refocus our lives on what is most important, to turn away from worldly concerns and come back to the Lord with our whole hearts. Lent is about discipleship, about discovering a way of following the Lord in a new and more intense manner. In past Lents, I […]
Read more "The Joy of Discipleship"St. John the Baptist is the next great protagonist of the Advent season of preparation for Christ that we encounter in today’s Gospel. He is the one who prepared the way for Christ by calling the people of Judea to repentance, the last and the greatest of the prophets, because he pointed out Christ Himself: […]
Read more "The Comfort of Repentance"Two weeks in a row now, the Gospel has ended with this haunting phrase, “Whoever has ears ought to hear.” So what are we supposed to hear? Each of the past two weeks we have heard a long and complicated parable in which our Lord explains what the Kingdom of Heaven is all about. Last […]
Read more "God only needs a little seed"Today we begin one of Holy Mother Church’s most ancient observances, the solemn fast of Lent. The ashes that we receive today are a relic of what in the early days of the Church was called the order of penitents. Before the sacrament of confession because widely available in the Middle Ages, it was only […]
Read more "The Order of Penitents"Judgment. Whenever we hear that word, we tend to cringe. Judgment. It seems to have a very negative connotation. Judgment, to many people, means a harsh decision, a punishment. We are probably reminded of the words of our Lord, “Judge not,lest you be judged.” Many of us have come to associate judging as a sin. […]
Read more "Don’t Judge Me!"One of the joys of the Christmas season we just finished is receiving mail. Most of the time, our mailboxes do not contain many things we would like to receive – just advertisements, bills, and credit card offers. But for about a month, we are transported to another era when our mailboxes are filled with […]
Read more "Glorious in God’s Sight"“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath!” (Mt 3:7)\ If we were to make the Gospels into a play, the character I would want to play would be John the Baptist. He undoubtedly would have the coolest lines: “Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees!” […]
Read more "Fleeing from the Coming Wrath"
Father Gregerson 