Yesterday was the first Saturday of the NCAA college football season for most schools, my alma mater included – the US Naval Academy. I remember the first game of my freshman (plebe) year. The opponent was Colgate. I had no idea there was a college with the name Colgate. I only knew Colgate as the family toothpaste (although I preferred Ipana and its mascot Bucky the Beaver). Continue reading
Losing one’s way. Not all that hard to do. You just need to stop paying attention. Don’t read the road signs. Don’t listen to your digital travel app telling you to turn. Be in the wrong lane when your interstate exit comes up. And that’s just in the world of transportation. There are lots of areas in life in which you can lose your way by just not paying attention: marriage, school, sports, career, and even one’s faith life. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 22nd Sunday. In this week’s posts we returned to our consideration of the Gospel of Mark. Before we continue, it is perhaps good to consider a “bigger picture” and gather our thoughts. As Van Linden points out, Mark’s gospel had presented a series of six miracles and then suddenly we are in the midst of a controversy that at first seems like “making a mountain out of a molehill.” Why break up the flow? The miracles demonstrate the power of God and for the attentive, the in-breaking of the kingdom of God, but is there more that Mark is attempting to present? With that I will leave you with some final thoughts. Continue reading
A world of information, expert advice, and knowledge all sit at our fingertips. With all that available to us via a simple query or the use of artificial intelligence such as Chat GPT, we should have plenty of answers to our questions. But will the answers carry wisdom? I can find a world of knowledge about bees and bee stings with a few keystrokes. Wisdom lies much deeper than our quick keystroke answers. Knowledge understands bee stings, but wisdom does not disturb the hive. Continue reading
As a Catholic priest I have done my fair share of weddings. It is a honor to help prepare the couples and to celebrate with them – and you get to meet some really nice couples and their families. Over the years I have also seen the pre-wedding day traditions change and the costs of the wedding (dinners, receptions, etc) grow in size and cost. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 22nd Sunday. 14 He summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. 15 Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.”…. 21 From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. 23 All these evils come from within and they defile.” Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 22nd Sunday. So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, “Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?”
In Mark 6:34 and following, Mark represents Jesus as the true shepherd of Israel. One easily hears the echo of Ezekiel 34:10 in which God promises that he himself will shepherd: “Thus says the Lord GOD: Look! I am coming against these shepherds. I will take my sheep out of their hand and put a stop to their shepherding my flock, so that these shepherds will no longer pasture them. I will deliver my flock from their mouths so it will not become their food.” While this passage is normally considered in the context of the kings of Israel and Judah, in the post-Exile period the “shepherding” of the people to the Covenant became the responsibility of the religious leaders of the nation. Continue reading
Today’s first reading begins: “We instruct you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to shun any brother who walks in a disorderly way and not according to the tradition they received from us.” (1 Thess 3:6).
I have to admit I was surprised with the word “shun.” My first thought was from some movie from long ago when an early American faith community formally “shunned” one of its members for some transgression. Everyone in the church turned their backs to the person, marking the point in time when that person ceased to exist in the life of the community. It was a harsh moment. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 22nd Sunday. In yesterday’s post we addressed the topic of Sacred Tradition and its role within the Catholic Church – as a prelude to the gospel for this week when the topic of the “tradition of the elders” is part of the dialogue between Jesus and the Pharisees/scribes.
1 Now when the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2 they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. 3 (For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. 4 And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles (and beds).)
This coming Sunday is the 22nd Sunday. In yesterday’s post we refocused our attention to the Gospel of Mark, last proclaimed on the 16th Sunday as we focused on St. John’s “Bread of Life Discourse.” In this week’s gospel Mark 7:8, refers to “human traditions,” a verse which non-Catholic folk will often hold up as proof text of the manner in which the Catholic Church has gone astray, introducing all manner of non-Biblical beliefs. The usual list includes the veneration of Mary, her Immaculate Conception and her bodily Assumption into Heaven. There is also the transubstantiation, praying to saints, the confessional, penance, purgatory, and more that make their topical list of errors. Continue reading
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