Scripture:
1st Reading: Isaiah 35:4-7A
2nd Reading: James 2: 1-5
Gospel: Mark 7:31-37

After listening to this gospel, I can’t help but think of the times I have not heard or spoke the way I should. The situations of our world keep us caught up in the moment and once the moment has passed away we go on doing the same old stupid things. Yes, it even happens to me!

How many of us, for example, take what we have heard each Sunday and have gone out to speak it? Whether it be in our homes, our work places, our play places, our school, with our family, friends? Can we honestly say that we have heard?

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23rd Sunday of Ordinary TimeRead More »

According to numerous surveys done since I was ordained, on any given Sunday, only 25 percent of American Catholics attend Mass. Some go every week, some go from time to time when it suits them, and others go only on select occasions such as Christmas and Easter. That means few Catholics celebrate the Eucharist regularly.

I am mindful of former parishioners who no longer attend Mass here. Why is that? I don’t know. Undoubtedly, their reasons are varied, but I suspect that more and more American Catholics seem to believe that they can have faith without religion. They believe in a God who leaves them alone and lets them live their individual lives without all kinds of institutional demands and restrictions. They believe God is in his heaven but has little influence on human affairs. The Ten Commandments is enough for ethical living. Their faith is internal and sufficient for salvation. They see no need for the Church or for common worship yet they believe that a loving God will someday save them.

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21st Sunday of Ordinary TimeRead More »

Scripture: 1ST Reading- Proverbs 9:1-6
2nd Reading-Ephesians 5:15-20
Gospel- John 6:51-58

In today’s gospel reading Jesus concludes his teaching on the mystery of the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ truly present to us. For three weeks running we even sing the same psalm; “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord”. This does not happen very often and is unusual in Church liturgy. Usually the theme’s change every week.

Why is this? Did we really hear the words when we sang the psalm; “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord”? To devote four weeks to the Eucharist sure does stress the importance it must have in our lives and how it affects our minds, hearts, and souls.

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20th Sunday of Ordinary TimeRead More »

Scripture: 1ST Reading: 2 Kings 4:42-44
               2nd Reading: Ephesians 4: 1-6
               Gospel: John 6: 1-15

Most everyone knows the story of the multiplication of the loaves of bread and a couple fish to feed five thousand people on a hillside, where they gathered to hear Jesus speak. Jesus received the five loaves and the two fish from a boy, he gave thanks and distributed the bread and as much fish as they wanted.

This was an amazing thing that happened on the side of that mountain, and what we experience at every Mass is just as amazing, “The Eucharist”, the height of God’s abundance to us, giving us his only begotten Son in this Eucharist, the real presence of Jesus among us; just as real as the presence of Jesus when he gave out five ;loaves and two fish to feed five thousand people sitting on a hillside.

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17th Sunday of Ordinary TimeRead More »

Shepherds dominate the readings today. I doubt many of us care to be thought of as sheep but God has good reason for comparing us to them. You really don’t have to go far to see sheep in action since they graze in the field across the street.

Sheep move about with their eyes to the ground, focusing on the patch of grass in front of them. The image of a sheep may be more fitting than we care to admit since we don’t always consider the consequences of our choices and actions before committing them. As we “eat” our way through life, all of us at one time or another stumble at times because we don’t see where we are going. God knows we need good shepherds to keep an eye on us and lead us safely through life.

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16th Sunday of Ordinary TimeRead More »