Category Archives: Musings

A piece of the Tapestry

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Today we celebrate the Feast of the Visitation when the Blessed Virgin Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth immediately after the events of the Annunciation when the Angel Gabriel proclaimed the conception of the Christ Child by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Lucan narrative in Chapter 1 is about as rich a text as one could ask for. It is rich in OT echoes with strains of 1 Samuel woven into the thread of the story. It foreshadows Luke’s emphasis of the Holy Spirit so profoundly described in his second book, Acts of the Apostles. Continue reading →

Enthralled

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Merriam Websters “Word of the Day” this day is “enthralled” – “to hold the attention of someone by being very exciting, interesting, or beautiful,” or in other words, “to charm.” It is often used in its past participle form, as in “I was enthralled by the beauty of the landscape.” While one hopes that you are enthralled by the contents of this blog, you might be less enthralled by the word’s etymology. Continue reading →

Wisdom of Sirach

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The first reading for today comes from the Book of Sirach (also known as the Wisdom of Ben Sira and as Ecclesiasticus, or more literally, “Church Book.”) The author, a sage who lived in Jerusalem, was thoroughly imbued with love for the wisdom tradition, and also for the law, priesthood, Temple, and divine worship. As a wise and experienced observer of life he addressed himself to his contemporaries with the motive of helping them to maintain religious faith and integrity through study of the books sacred to the Jewish tradition. Written in Hebrew in the early years of the second century B.C., it holds up the wisdom of the life, scriptures and traditions of Israel as a more sure reflection of the desire of God for his people as opposed to the surrounding Hellenistic culture. Continue reading →

I can be replaced

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There are lots of things that are fascinating. Consider the first reading.

In Acts 25:13-21, we find a fascinating account of the apostle Paul’s trial before King Agrippa and Festus, the Roman governor. This passage offers insights into the complexities of the political and religious dynamics at play during that time.

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Incomplete Christian

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In the first reading for today, St. Paul met some men who, as William Barclay notes, were incomplete Christians. They had received the baptism of John but they did not even know of the Holy Spirit in the Christian sense of the term. Paul then said, “John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus…When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.” (Acts 19:4-5) Continue reading →

Evangelization Masterclass

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The account of St. Paul’s address on the Areopagus in Athens is a masterclass in the evangelization of the culture – a skill surely important for our day and age. His arrival in Athens is, in its way, the introduction of Christianity to Europe. It was an event, while of no particular note or importance to historians, thoughts leaders, or philosophers of the day, was one that shaped the history of Western Europe and eventually the world. Continue reading →

The trail we leave behind

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There are a lot of things we leave behind as we pass through this life. Sometimes we are intentional, sometimes not. We mature, grow up, leave home and leave behind a whole host of things that marked our passage through childhood, the teenage years, and as a young adult. Those are the intentional things. The list of unintentional things is no doubt as long. Did you know you were leaving behind a trail of your DNA? Continue reading →

Rules

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Recently someone remarked to me that sometimes the Catholic Church seems to be a collection of rules just for the sake of rules. I could provide a long list of examples, but I suspect you have in mind your own list of rules that give you pause. Of course one always has to discern if what you are hearing is actually a “rule” of the Church or just something someone offers as a rule – but just ain’t so. There are lots of people who offer that it is a “rule” that you have to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation during Lent. Nope. It is “the Easter Duty” to receive Holy Communion during the Easter Season – that’s a rule –  and there is a historical reason for it. Continue reading →