This is the third Sunday this month on which a feast day falls—this time the beheading of St John the Baptizer—so we have another pair of Gospels to proclaim and preach (Mk. 6:14-29 and Mt. 22:1-14). As it happens, a banquet figures prominently in each of these Gospel readings. But these are radically different kinds [...]
A while ago I did something sort of as a lark. I was rather curious about the hundreds of little seeds that come with every bell pepper. They’re flat and round and almost look like they’re made of plastic or something, since they have a smooth and shiny exterior. I thought: what if I just [...]
It seems that there is a deep wound or a massive vulnerability in the heart of our modern life: sex (meaning here the forms of sexual activity and the mind-set created by preoccupation with it, or any sort of sexually provocative presentation). Sex is practically everywhere you look and listen in our society. It sells [...]
[The following is an article I wrote some years ago—I’m almost out of these!—which I hope will be of some benefit to you, while my poor brain tries to regroup for some more new insights and reflections.] Scripture often employs the images of darkness and light, night and day, to illustrate (that is, literally, to [...]
Since the feast of the Dormition (Assumption) of the Mother of God falls on a Sunday this year, the readings for the Sunday are prescribed as well as those of the feast (Mt. 19:16-29; Lk. 10:38-42, 11:27-28; 1Cor. 15:1-11; Phil. 2:5-11). Rather than complicate things, though, the extra readings actually help us gain a new [...]
Shortly before Jesus launched into the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Lk. 16:19-31), He said the following: “If you have not been faithful with unrighteous money, who will trust you with true riches? You cannot serve God and money. What is exalted among men is an abomination before God.” This last line was [...]
A friend recently sent me a book I found not only interesting, but in one instance a means by which the Lord spoke to me (as best as I can discern). It’s called, Full of Grace: Miraculous Stories of Healing and Conversion through Mary’s Intercession. These encounters with Our Lady either happened at Medjugorje or [...]
The Gospel today (Mt. 18:23-35) concerns a matter very dear to the Heart of Jesus: forgiveness. I think I can safely say that once we accept in faith the essential doctrines of Christianity—the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation, the Virgin Birth, the redemptive Death and Resurrection of Christ, the Holy Eucharist, the reality of Heaven and [...]
St. Peter says, in the epistle for this feast (2Peter 1:10-19), that we have the prophetic word of God that we should attend to, as to a light shining in a dark place. What we’re celebrating today is that Light. We’re celebrating the the glory of God shining on the face of Christ, as St. [...]
Our summer issue is published on our monastery site now. Even though I published my articles for this newsletter here a little while back, there are still a couple more articles in our newsletter, as well as the information for getting an e-mail notification for each issue, if you wish. So you can check it [...]
