“The resurrection of the Lord is our hope- Resurrection Domini, spes nostra” Jesus rose again so that we, though destined to die, should not despair, worrying that with death life is completely finished; Christ is risen to give us hope. Indeed, one of the questions that most preoccupies men and women is this: what is  Read more …

“Do not be afraid…I know what you are looking for…come and see.” The Church throughout the world echoes the angel’s message to the women: “Do not be afraid! I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised… Come, see the place.” This is the  Read more …

ng back to God and coming back to church are two aspects of faith: individual and ecclesial (community). The individual aspect is reflected by, or seen in, “the human heart.” In the Old Testament the Lord says to his people “Return to me with all your heart” (Joel 2). “Behold, the days are coming, says  Read more …

There’s something strangely comforting about the messy stories of God’s saints in Scripture. We might expect the heroes of the Bible to go from one episode of obedience to the next, successive faith victories on the path to eternal glory. But that’s not what we find in the Bible. Take Abraham, for instance. In Genesis  Read more …

Bread of life God promised that he will feed his people well. Given this promise, the story in the Gospel reading appointed for this Sunday makes perfect sense: Jesus feeds the people who come to him with bread. The scene for the miraculous feeding of thousands takes place in a desert as did the miraculous  Read more …

Evil is real and fatal. Demons have played a large part in mythology, books, movies, and even music. Films such as “Paranormal Activity” and “The Exorcist” have made demons something to fear. Movies, however, rarely scratch the surface of just how evil these corrupt former servants of God can be. Everywhere the Bible sees a  Read more …

From Jewish roots In actual fact, fasting from meat on Fridays can be traced all the way back to the earliest Christian communities who continued many Jewish fasting traditions that were first laid down in the Old Testament (Leviticus 11 & 23:26-32). Before the start of Christianity, pious Jews would fast from most animal products  Read more …

It is never too late to come back to God Not all, but many congregations are dwindling exponentially from within. These are folks who were active in their faith but for some reason stopped coming to church. One such prodigal shared questions with me like: Does God want me back?; I was a believer but  Read more …

People attending our Mass think a lot of things about the different postures we take. Things like “Oh, up we go again.” And “Why are we kneeling?” Which is why this series focuses on the “why” of sitting, standing, and kneeling during a Mass. Sitting: In the bible, sitting is a posture of listening. We  Read more …

The reason Lent lasts 40 days is that 40 is the traditional number of judgment and spiritual testing in the Bible (Gn 7:4, Ex 24:18, 34:28, Nm 13:25, 14:33, Jon 3:4). Lent bears particular relationship to the 40 days Christ spent fasting in the desert before entering into his public ministry (Mt 4:1-11). We imitate  Read more …