Category Archives: franciscan

Creeds

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This coming Sunday is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. 16 The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. 18 Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit,  20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” (Mt 28:16-20) Continue reading →

Luke’s Account – John’s Account

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This coming weekend is Pentecost Sunday. The first reading for Pentecost Sunday is the account from Acts 2 so familiar to every Christian. Luke’s account is a very public event compared to the very private Johannine account.  Why the difference? Some scholars defend the basic historicity of the entire Lucan narrative; others conclude that it is essentially Luke’s theological attempt to explain the coming of the Spirit, not an historical account of actual events. Some, holding to the historicity of the Lucan account in Acts 2, hold that John’s account is symbolic only. Continue reading →

Some First Thoughts

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This coming Sunday is the 6th Sunday of Easter in Lectionary Cycle B. This gospel continues the pericope begun last week (John 15:1-8) that begins “I am the true vine…” The gospel is part of the larger “Farewell Discourse” that occurs during the evening when Jesus gathered with his apostles for the “Last Supper” before his passion and death. Some point from last week’s notes are: Continue reading →

Francis Scott Key Bridge Collapse

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I am sure that you’ve read the overnight news about the container ship collision with Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge. Let us pray for the people driving across the bridge, the workers on the bridge, any others injured in the event – and for the traffic problems Baltimore will face for a long time to come. If you want to see a great technical report on the accident, I’d recommend Sal Mercogliano’s video.

Wrong Question

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Hamlet, Act III, Scene I offers us the famous line: “To be or not to be, that is the question…” Moses tells us in today’s first reading  from Deuteronomy, that the right question is a lot more important than mere existence. God’s admonition to us is that we are to always choose life. The right question is whether we understand what it means to chose life and will we do it? Continue reading →

Three A’s

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In today’s readings for Ash Wednesday, we encounter Jesus in the midst of the “Sermon on the Mount” from the Gospel of Matthew. As my friend, Fr. Bill points out, the entire context of these verses is that prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are a “given.” Jesus is operating out of the understanding that faithful people already are doing those things. In other words, Jesus doesn’t recommend a new set of practices, rather he addresses the underlying attitude about those practices. Continue reading →

Isn’t that always the question?

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So… “What are you giving up for Lent?” Isn’t that always the question? As if that is the reason for the season. Growing up, everything I remember about Lent circled around the acts of self-denial – what food, entertainment, or habit one would give up, and how hard it was to deny oneself of that thing. It was not always made clear that the denial was meant to help one think about God and Christ’s sacrifice Continue reading →

Some Final Thoughts

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This coming Sunday is the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Thomas Wright points out one element of human nature that might be in play. Some people just can’t keep a secret. Jesus had his reasons for the man to follow the proscriptions of Leviticus. For a person who is blind or lame, their healing is quickly evident to us. For someone burdened with leprosy, most of the affected areas of the skin are not visible to the public – people might be rightly skeptical. But if the person had gone to Jerusalem, received the declaration of healing, and followed the purification ritual, and then returned. All doubt would be removed. But some people just can’t keep a secret. Continue reading →