The Season of Lent is a season of testing. The Lord tests us, in order to make us stronger in our faith, and draw us closer to Him. The number forty (40) in Scripture has always been symbolic of testing or trial. Think of Israel’s forty years in the wilderness,…
What do we immediately think of when we consider LENT? Giving up Something? But that’s only part of it. Jesus teaches us that there are three essential parts we must participate in: Prayer Fasting Almsgiving Why these three? Because they are the precise remedies for what is sometimes called the…
As we round out and conclude the Christmas Season, we focus on the Baptism of the Lord, which prepares us for moving forward into our following the three-year ministry of Jesus. We are also preparing for that great season of Lent which leads to the Resurrection of Our Lord. So,…
We have finally reached the pinnacle of the Christmas season, the final of the Twelve Days of Christmas (the final 12 symbolizing the twelve points of belief in the Apostle’s Creed). What is an Epiphany? A manifestation of some truth. In the case of Christians, it is the manifestation of…
This week’s First Reading comes from the Book of Deuteronomy. The last book of the Torah, the Books of the Law, so revered by the Jewish people, the name means “Second Law”, because it is a reiteration by Moses of the ordinances of God delivered to the second generation of…
Have you ever thrown a party and nobody came? In our First Reading, Wisdom personified prepares her feast — but is anyone coming? We read: – “Whoever is simple turn in here” – “To the one who lacks understanding … Come, eat my food” – “Forsake foolishness that you may…
The fabulous Catholic journalist convert G.K. Chesterton often wrote stories about believers coming into conflict with atheists, and stories involving atheists coming face to face with Faith and God. One such story had a scene in which a Catholic girl was trying to convince her atheist boyfriend to come to…
In this Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, we continue with Part 2 of our study of the Sixth chapter of John’s Gospel. The Church skips over the episode of Jesus’ walking on the water and picks up again when the crowd who was just fed found Him on the opposite…
This week’s Gospel marks an interruption in our semi-continuous reading of the Gospel of Mark [for Year B in the Cycle of Sunday Readings]. This week begins a rather in-depth reading of the Sixth chapter of John’s Gospel, which will continue for the next five weeks. Why John chapter…
Our First Reading contains a line quoted by Our Lord during the cleansing of the Temple (Mark 11:17). At that incident, Jesus saw how the merchants and money-changers were not only using the sacred space of the Temple for their own worldly business transactions (thus profaning the holy Temple), they…
