What do we know… and not know about the Holy Family? What can we learn from the Feast of the Holy Family?
Year: 2021
Christmas Conversations, Challenges, and Blessings
Christmas has many dimensions. Christmas gatherings spark conversations at many levels – past, present, and future.
Who Is Pope Francis Listening To?
Who have you listened to and been nourished by this Advent?
Secular writers or social influencers?
Scriptures, the Sunday gospels, or homilies?
Your conscience?
A spiritual director?
A combination of the above?
The Visitation as “Paying it forward”
In the annunciation of our Baptism, we are challenged to be Christ-bearers, to be Christ in the midst of our ordinary lives.
Mary’s visitation challenges us to “pay it forward”, to visit and encounter our neighbor.
Who Wants To Change Your Way of Thinking?
Everybody wants to change our way of thinking. Does God? What change of thinking is God asking about how we live?
From Christ’s Mass to Merry Christmas… and Back
iI we can enter into the fullness of Christmas past, we will experience new levels of hope in the midst of a chaotic Christmas present!
Have We Outgrown Nativity Scenes?
Many of us either witnessed or were participants as children in appropriate costumes and props re-enacted the Nativity scene.
As adults we grew beyond these re-enactments.
Something Pope Francis wrote reminds me to think about recognizing that we act out various roles in our daily life.
Giving Up Playing God?
Which approach is ours?
Giving up and walking away?
Giving up thinking we can do it on our own?
The Baptist I Never Knew
John the Baptist is the only saint in the calendar, apart from the mother of Jesus, to have two days set apart in his honor. He is featured in six Sunday Gospels in the three year Advent cycle.
Christmas and Baptism – From Outside or Inside?
“Baptism is like a very precious gift package that remains unopened, like a Christmas gift, misplaced somewhere and forgotten about, even before it was opened.” It is too big for my imagination.
Do You Speak In “Mother Tongue”?
Mary has appeared in almost every country in the world. In each, she speaks the language of the time and place. “They each heard them in their own language.” The languages were different, but the message was clear. In each language they heard the words of a mother.
What Does December 7th Mean to You?
I just missed by a few days witnessing the 1965 passing of the document – The Church in the Modern World. We are still within the normal window it takes to implement such a document. Pope Francis calls us to fully implement the document.
Questions I Would Like To Ask Mary
DId mary know she was conceived free from sin? What was she praying for before the Annunciation? What did she expect when she was expecting? What were her questions as the mother of Jesus?
Did Pope Francis plagiarize a Brother Bishop?
Beatitudes for Bishops seems spot-on for leaders in the Vincentian Family and all who see themselves as servants of the poor after the model of St. Vincent following Christ the Evangelizer of the poor.
What Should We As Church Be Doing?
“What is the most important thing that the church needs to be doing in the world today?”
Some say it needs to comfort those who are uncomfortable.
Others would say it needs to challenge the comfortable.
Which would you say?
Looking At Luke’s Big Picture!
Of the fifty-two weeks in Cycle C more than forty Sunday Gospels are drawn from Luke. It is important to see the big picture painted by individual Sunday snippets.
Lord knows!
In his Gospel, Luke shifts the early Christian emphasis away from the expectation of an imminent second coming to the day-to-day concerns of the Christian community in their world.
St. Vincent Modeled Openness to New Ways
Centuries ago, a Japanese poet, Basho, wrote “I do not wish to imitate what the great ones of the past did. I would rather seek what they sought.” The insight fits Vincent, and the early Daughters of Charity, in so many ways. It also challenges us today to be as open as they were.
Where Was Your Thanksgiving?
There is just so much to do before, during, and after the annual celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday. Can we remember to thank God for loving us into being and continuing to love us always?
A Vincentian a Century Ahead of His Time
“Pray, Pay and Obey” was once a pithy aphorism that succinctly captured the Catholic view in the pre-Vatican II church! – Thomas Augustine Judge, CM was raised in that culture. Yet after twenty years a priest he went so far as to say “this is the layman’s hour”. What a radical thought 1919!
Should We Imitate a Servant King?
People should experience in us the loving presence of a new kind of ruler – one from humble origins, who proclaimed the Reign of God, washed feet, died to manifest God’s love for us, rose from the dead and breathed his Spirit on us, so we could live his life as citizens of the Kingdom/Reign of God.
You Must Watch “The Chosen”! Really???
I admit I was turned off by the title of the review... ‘The Chosen’ is the Jesus TV show your very Catholic aunt keeps telling you to watch. And you should." Apparently, Mary Grace Mangano, the reviewer read my mind. She wrote "I could not help but think, oh, a Bible...
Millennials Have Been Described Many Ways
A millennial, learning the Acutis story recently, said “Carlos puts flesh on what a saint who plays video games and goes on the internet looks like. He challenges me to examine my conscience and say, ‘Ok, I’m called to be a saint who uses the internet too. Am I using it to make God’s love known?’”
Pope Francis – The Poor Are True Evangelizers
Sometimes we wish we were among those who walked with Jesus 2000 years ago. Pope Francis boldly says even today we walk with them.
Believers, when they want to see Jesus in person and touch him with their hands, know where to turn. The poor are a sacrament of Christ; they represent his person and point to him.”
When Your Whole World Changes
We use the word “apocalyptic” to describe life-changing events.
In biblical times it meant to reveal something new. The Book of Daniel and today’s reading from the gospel of Mark stand in that tradition.
What Do These Slogans Have in Common?
I have long been aware of how effectively Pope Francis uses stories to challenge, enlighten or motivate his listeners.
Jesus did the same in the story of the so-called Good Samaritan. He asks us to reflect on the three people who passed by the badly injured traveler.
I Flunked My Black Catholic History Test!
Ok! It wasn’t a test. It was just an article about November as Black Catholic History Month. But there was so much I did not know.
If I took a flash quiz based on the article I would have flunked. In a playful mood, I reworked it in the form of a quiz.
Learning to See What Jesus Sees?
What was Jesus Doing? What he always does. Noticing the unseen poor ordinary people.
Culture of Vocations – Mission Impossible?
A Palestinian Jew gathered 12 ordinary people and sent them out on an impossible mission. He created a culture of vocation and mission.
What Is It like At a Papal Audience?
For one minute and 25 seconds, I was almost nose to nose with Pope Francis. His 150-word message clearly came from his heart. At various points, it seemed he looked straight into my heart. I felt I was there! I wasn’t… but it felt like it!
Rom 16, 13 reads: "Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; and greet his mother—a mother to me also." If this…
Have a blessed Holy Week!
I have never thought about the people that were named in the Gospels. I would agree that they may be…
Generally, I love the laconic nature of Mark's Gospel. The Passion narrative is very compelling in its starkness, with one…
Father John, Blessings to you as you step cautiously down that new path. Grace and Peace be with you!