Reflections on the Gospel

April 2017: A Reflection for Easter Time on John 20:24-29 Jesus spoke to Thomas, "Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving any more but believe." Thomas the doubter. Thomas the unfaithful. Poor Thomas. He's been called a lot of things. Not that his behavior didn't make them plausible. But I'd like to think of him…

A Reflection on Matthew 12:28-34 One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,"Which is the first of all the commandments?" Jesus replied, "The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your…

January 15, 2017: A Reflection for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A MARK 2:18-22 Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wine skins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wine skins. I once had someone say to me when challenged to do something she preferred to avoid at all costs…

Fourth Sunday of Advent The final candle has received flame into its heart and completes the circle of light.  In one week we will celebrate the coming of the fullness of Light into our universe in the Person of Jesus.  God from God.  Light from Light.  The coming of the God who longs and the God who waits for us will once more be celebrated at Christmas.  Our last candle…

Third Sunday of Advent Candle and flame.  Light and relationship.  Our third Advent Candle burns with the desire of the God-who-waits that we yield our substance to the flame of his love in relationship.  Relationship which takes its expression in how we relate to God’s presence in us, in others and in the circumstances that make up our lives.  We have moved from experiencing God in our depths, to experiencing…

Second Sunday of Advent Another candle expands the circle of light we call the Advent Wreath.  One more candle welcomes the flame of our God who waits.  Last week we spoke of yielding our inmost depths to God-with-us in the silence of our being.  Our second candle invites us to open out to the God who surrounds us in all creation.  Can we hear God’s comforting voice beckoning us to…

First Sunday of Advent The first flicker of light tops the candle among the greens of our Advent Wreath.  Our candle has yielded its substance to fire and casts its gentle glow.  The candle and the fire have become one.  We stand at the threshold of a season of longing, of waiting.  “O Come Emmanuel, God with us.”  He is present in every atom of his creation.  He surrounds us…

A REFLECTION ON LUKE 12:49-53 Jesus said to his disciples: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!" We are surrounded by fire--the fragments of the ball of fire that Jesus cast upon the earth and of which he speaks in this Gospel passage.  It was his mission and it consumed him--this passionate desire to ignite all creation with the recognition that the spark at…

A Reflection for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time Mark 9:30-37 Jesus was teaching his disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death he will rise.” When you look at today's Gospel, what do you see?  I suppose there are many fruitful avenues to explore and certainly ones that Jesus was urging…