Sunday’s Readings: Jeremiah 20:7-9; Psalms 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9; Romans 12:1-2; Matthew 16:21-27

……from your Pastor’s Desk – “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny him-self, take up his cross, and follow me.” To understand today’s Gospel we must look back to a time in our lives when, in retrospect, we see that something, or someone we wanted, and didn’t get – turned out to be the very best in the long run. Garth Brooks has a great song called ‘Unanswered Prayers’ about this very thing. I think we have all had that experience at least once. And – that is part of ‘Taking up your Cross’. Even if by hindsight. …

Sunday’s Readings: Isaiah 22:19-23; Psalms 138:1-2, 2-3, 6, 8; Romans 11:33-36; Matthew 16:13-20

……from your Pastor’s Desk – “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” – “He’s a man, he’s just a man,” sang Mary Magdalene in the musical Jesus Christ Superstar. It is one answer to the question, Who is Jesus Christ? “We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first, rock ’n’ roll or Christianity,” said John Lennon of the Beatles on a famous occasion. Later he explained that it was a comment on society and not on Jesus. …

Sunday’s Readings: Isaiah 56:1, 6-7; Psalms 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8; Romans 11:13-15, 29-32; Matthew 15:21-28

Food for Dogs? – Sunday’s Gospel can give a headache both to preachers and to people in the pews. Jesus refuses to hear a woman because she is, in his metaphor, one of the “dogs.” OUCH. You know the story. The Canaanite woman cries out for help and Jesus at first will not even talk to her. …

Sunday’s Readings: 1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13a; Psalms 85:9, 10, 11-12, 13-14; Romans 9:1-5; Matthew 14:22-33

……from your Pastor’s Desk – Where do you find God? – Only in church? Only while praying? Only in times of need or distress? Only in those we expect to be holy or pious people? Too often we look to great people and to the events in our lives to find God, as if our encounters with God have to meet certain standards and criteria in order to be true. There is a tendency in some to see God only in the extraordinary, not in the humdrum and ordinary [of which we spoke last Sunday]. But to do that would be to limit the ways God reveals Himself to us. …

Sunday’s Readings: Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14; Ps 97:1-2, 5-6, 9; 2 Peter 1:16-19; Matthew 17:1-9

……from your Pastor’s Desk – Transfiguration – This week we have the wonderful gospel of the Transfiguration of Jesus. For one brief moment, his disciples are allowed to see what lies ahead for all who follow his way. We begin our own ‘transfiguration’ while still on earth, not so much achieving a ‘glorified body’, but transforming our heart, our spirit, our soul into the Lord’s. …

Sunday’s Readings: 1 Kings 3:5, 7-12; Psalms 119:57, 72, 76-77, 127-128, 129-130; Romans 8:28-30; Matthew 13:44-52 OR 13:44-46

……from your Pastor’s Desk – What to Treasure? – In both of today’s parables, people find something of high value, one a box of treasure and the other a priceless pearl. How they make these discoveries is quite different. One finds treasure by accident, while not looking for anything in particular. … In the other case, the merchant was actively searching for fine pearls and …

Sunday’s Readings: Wisdom 12:13, 16-19; Psalms 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16; Romans 8:26-27; Matthew 13:24-43 OR 13:24-30

……from your Pastor’s Desk – We are a storytelling people and we come from a storytelling faith, and we get it from the Man Himself. We know that Jesus was the Master storyteller, and He often used a form called a “parable,” in which a truth is compared to something very familiar. Last Sunday we had the sower and the seeds. Today, Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is “like a man who sowed good seed,” or “like a mustard seed,” or “like yeast.” …

Sunday’s Readings: Isaiah 55:10-11; Psalms 65:10, 11, 12-13, 14; Romans 8:18-23; Matthew 13:1-23 OR 13:1-9

……from your Pastor’s Desk – Start up your time-machines or jump into your DeLorean – because we are going ‘Back To The Future’. Here is an excerpt from our Parish bulletin dated July 13, 2014. Which was, coincidentally, the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A – just like this weekend. And which, coincidently, was the first weekend of my assignment here. So…

Sunday’s Readings: Zechariah 9:9-10; Psalms 145:1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13-14; Romans 8:9, 11-13; Matthew 11:25-30

……from your Pastor’s Desk – Today’s gospel should give us comfort when we feel down and out. If we feel that we have worked our fingers to the bone and have not seen any success, the gospel is for us. Can any of you relate? …

Sunday’s Readings: 2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16a; Psalms 89:2-3, 16-17, 18-19; Romans 6:3-4, 8-11; Matthew 10:37-42

……from your Pastor’s Desk – The Love of the Lord – In the Gospel Reading, Jesus seems to recommend an inhuman attitude: you are not to love your mother or father or your child more than Jesus. In fact, you are not to love your own life more than Jesus. If you do, you will lose what you love. What does it even mean to compare loves in this way? If you have more than one child, you can love each one equally, can’t you? Why think that your love of your child is in competition with your love of Jesus? But if it is, honestly, why wouldn’t you love your child more? …