Reflections on the Gospel

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…

REFLECTION ON EXODUS 34:29-35 Radiance!  We are just swimming in radiance.  It fills us, and all we can look upon, and all that is.  The Scriptures tell us, "His radiance fills all things."  Presence could be another word for it. His presence fills all things.  How could it be otherwise? Only the veil of creation obscures it, but don't we experience it when we encounter one another at the level of…

CHAPTER TALK FOR THE FEAST OF ST. BENEDICT Here we are, on the Feast of the glorious Benedict. A giant of a saint in so many ways, and whose Rule we follow. And for whom does he write this Rule? Plain, ordinary human beings – you and me and all who follow it and have followed it over the centuries. In a sense, you can say it is a plain,…

LIVING FROM THE HEART--reflection on Luke 2:41-51 Today is the second of the great “heart” feast days:  yesterday was the Sacred Heart, today, the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  There are many different ways to look at what “heart” means in the context of the scriptures.  It is most often seen as the place where love resides, the seat of our emotions and warmth, as in “I love you with all…

ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE WITH GOD: a reflection on Mark 10:17-27 Today’s young man in the Gospel was quite the person, wasn’t he?! Something tugged at his heart to go beyond, to go deeper. And so he approached this holy man that he had been hearing so much about and inquired of him what he should do now. Jesus certainly recognized the devotion and cast his gaze of love upon…

GLORY: Reflection on John 17:1 “Give glory to your Son that your Son may glorify you.” Glory. Who doesn’t want glory? But, as we all know, there’s glory and there’s Glory. Two very different paths to travel in this world, and choosing the true path will determine our happiness. There’s the idea of glory that we humans have that is shiny, and full of all that glitters. We succeed, we…

JUBILEE Jubilee. What does it mean when we say that word? Just what are we celebrating today? Let’s look at the word itself. Jubilee derives from the Latin jubilare, to shout with joy. Going back even farther in time, it comes from the Hebrew word, yobhel “jubilee”, formerly a trumpet made from a ram’s horn. The original jubilee was a year of emancipation of slaves and restoration of lands, and…