Monday of the 12th week in Ordinary Time – Mt 7:1-5 Today’s Gospel continues with Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, and today’s reading gives us the well-known passage about the splinter and beam, a warning against hypocrisy. We notice that in the Gospel, the whole point of having the wooden beam removed is so to […]
Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year A – Jer 20:10-13; Ps 69:8-10,14,17,33-35; Rm 5:12-15; Mt 10:26-33 Today’s readings all speak to us of two things: fear and trust in God: fear and trust. We heard the words of Jeremiah, who said “I hear the whisperings of many: ‘Terror on every side! Denounce! let
Nativity of Saint John the Baptist – June 24th – Option 2 – Lk 1: 57-66, 80 It might come as sort of a surprise, but one of the symbols in art associated with Saint Ambrose is a beehive; sometimes you’ll see a beehive at his feet, and he is in fact the patron
Friday of the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time – Mt 6:19-23 In today’s Gospel, Jesus issues a stern warning about material wealth and placing our trust in it. We can see this warning as both prohibiting us and encouraging us. It is clear that Jesus is prohibiting us from excessively focusing on material
Saint John Fisher, bishop, and Thomas More, martyrs – June 22nd Today we celebrate the memorial of Saints John Fisher and Thomas More. Both were martyred in England by King Henry VIII, and the two of them are remembered mostly for that. Indeed, today the two are invoked with great frequency as martyrs for religious
Wednesday of the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time – Mt 6:1-6, 16-18 Today’s Gospel is the usual one for Ash Wednesday, and it reminds us of the need for praying, fasting, and almsgiving. These deeds are not simply for Lent, but rather for all times in the year. However, there is a phrase that Jesus
Tuesday of the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time – Mt 5:43-48 Today’s Gospel is surprisingly strong and forceful, more so than we might imagine at first. In fact, some have called this passage the heart and center of the whole preaching of the Sermon on the Mount. To understand why this is so, let
Monday of the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time – Mt 5:38-42 In a commentary on today’s Gospel, Saint Augustine notices how Jesus warns us against being too attached to three sorts of goods: first, our reputation, as indicated with the slap on the cheek, secondly, our material goods, as indicated by the tunic and
Sunday of the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time – A – Ex 19:2-6a, Ps 100:1-2, 3, 5, Rm 5:6-11, Mt 9:36—10:8 As many or perhaps all of you know, I am a priest in a missionary religious order. One of the most interesting things about being in a missionary order, at least in my
Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Lk 2:41-51 On the day after the solemnity of the Sacred Heart, we remember the heart from which that Heart took flesh: the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Speaking of the Sacred Heart, Pope Saint John Paul II said that “All [the liturgical] cycle is
