About thirty percent of the Gospels are dedicated to recounting the passion and death of Jesus (42% of John’s Gospel), but only one week of the church’s liturgical year is given to the same focus. Much happens between the upper room of Holy Thursday as the sun sets and the empty tomb of Easter Sunday […]
Palm Sunday is the only Sunday of the year in which Mass attendees begin the service outside their church building and enter together. The united movement symbolizes Jesus’ entry into the holy city, Jerusalem, where He was accompanied by a large crowd to inaugurate His passion. “Jerusalem” means peace realized. The ritual saunter also points […]
The late Rabbi Harold Kushner once said: “I don’t believe in a God who looks for reasons to punish people for being less than perfect. It is bad religion to teach that—just as it’s a mistake for parents to be excessively disappointed every time their child makes a mistake. I believe, instead, in a God […]
“Lorica” comes from a Latin word that describes a shield or breastplate which soldiers carried or wore in battle to protect them. The term has come to be associated with Saint Patrick’s breastplate that contained a prayer of protection as he encountered adversaries in presenting Christianity to natives of the Emerald Isle and is carried […]
Our annual Lenten journey begins in an ash heap that offers us numerous experiences and encounters. Marked with a sign of mortality, ashes in the form of a cross on our forehead, we embark on a pilgrimage of encounter. It starts by recalling that we are of the earth—ashes to ashes and dust to dust—and, […]
Missouri weather this time of year can fluctuate markedly with several consecutive days of temperatures in the seventies followed by several in the teens before reversing again. This lion-lamb effect goes beyond atmospheric pressures and barometric measures, for there is also fluctuation within the Lenten soul. As we journey from Ashes to Easter, it’s like […]
As we proceed through Lent and life, we might do well to take cues from some church leaders of the past, like Pope Francis, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, and Jesus. The way of proceeding through synodality is like the Ignatian Way of Proceeding. They are both based in prayer that listens to the Holy Spirit […]
As mid-February takes us from Friday the Thirteenth to Valentine’s Day to the Lord’s Day to President’s Day to Mardi Gras to Ash Wednesday…each day might feel like an emotional rollercoaster with thoughts of human love, divine love, love of nation, celebration, bad luck, mortality, and the journey of life. This continual shifting of gears […]
Many of us in our sixties have a diminishing interest in company policies, work regulations, and job procedures. It is true in my case. At this stage, I can increasingly profess what I have always believed: that as a priest I can be a better instrument of the Lord without being a cogwheel of the […]
Outgoing United States Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell was recently asked if he had any advice for his successor. He responded, “Don’t get pulled into the politics.” Regardless of one’s job or position in life, it is easy to get sucked into politics. It happens in church, school, health care, law firms, union jobs, family […]
