Sunday’s Readings: Jeremiah 20:7-9; Psalm 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 himself, 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. …
Sunday’s Readings: Isaiah 22:19-23; Psalm 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? …
Sunday’s Readings: Isaiah 56:1, 6-7; Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8; Romans 11:13-15, 29-32; Matthew 15:21-28
…from your Pastor’s Desk – 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; Psalm 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. …
Sunday’s Readings: 1 Kings 3:5, 7-12; Psalm 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 – Prayer for Grandparents – Lord Jesus, you were born of the Virgin Mary, the daughter of Saints Joachim and Anne. Look with love on grandparents the world over. Protect them! They are a source of enrichment for families, for the Church and for all of society. …
Sunday’s Readings: Wisdom 12:13, 16-19; Psalm 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 story telling people and we come from a story telling faith, and we get it from the Man Himself. We know that Jesus was the Master story-teller, and He often used a form called a “parable,” in which a truth is compared to something very familiar. …
Sunday’s Readings: Isaiah 55:10-11; Psalm 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; Psalm 145:1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13-14; Romans 8:9, 11-13; Matthew 11:25-30
…from your Pastor’s Desk – “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest. … ” 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. …
Sunday’s Readings: 2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16a; Psalm 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? …