The Feast of St. Bonaventure

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In many ways St. Bonaventure is a Saint for the times in which we live – when divisions are ripe and the unity of a nation is being sorely tested. In the years while St. Francis was alive, the Franciscan Order experienced rapid growth – which only accelerated after St. Francis’ death and canonization – each friar and local fraternity trying to discern what it meant to follow Christ in the “tradition” of Francis of Assisi. They came to several differing conclusions and the opinions were not always offered “humbly.”  Over simply, one group called for poverty to be the mainstay while another called for obedience. A third group was in the middle just wanting everyone to get along because fraternity and minority were the hallmarks of Franciscan life. The Order was beginning to come apart at the core. Continue reading →

The Encounters with Jesus

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This coming Sunday is the 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time  and the story of Martha and Mary. In yesterday’s post we took a deep dive into the biblical meaning and implications of hospitality. Today we will move from the welcome of hospitality to the scene most remembered:

“She [Martha] had a sister named Mary (who) sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Mary was listening to Jesus’ word or message (logos in the singular) when “Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.”  Continue reading →

No such thing…

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Here in the United States there seems to be an ongoing, overt (sometimes covert) concern about what is “authentic”, “historical”, orthodox, true orthopraxy, etc. regarding what is correct liturgical practice in the Roman Catholic Church. It is always good to remember that there is no such thing as the Roman Catholic Church. That statement generally gets people’s attention. Continue reading →

Hospitality

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This coming Sunday is the 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time  and the story of Martha and Mary. In yesterday’s post we provided some points of contact showing how this story and last week’s gospel (the lawyer who wanted to know what he must do to gain eternal life), together portray a fuller picture of what it means to be a disciple of Christ. Today’s post is a long one – delving into the biblical meaning of hospitality. Continue reading →

Woe to you

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When I was a year or two short of being a full-fledged teenager, I was invited to attend my first funeral. It was not a Catholic funeral – and as I came to know – nothing like a Catholic funeral. It was a fundamentalist, born-again, raucous affair for a person who by all measures was a backsliding, church-skipping, no-good, no-count, reprobate of a man. The preacher made no bones about where this particular dearly-departed would spend eternity. He held up the miserable failing and sinful ways of this man as a warning of what would happen when Satan got his claws into you and dragged you down into the pit. Continue reading →

Model Discipleship

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This coming Sunday is the 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time  and the story of Martha and Mary. In yesterday’s post we provided some context and raised the question of this gospel and the one in which the lawyer asks Jesus what he must do to gain eternal life.

Looking at these stories together, it suggests that the contrast is not between doing and listening, but between being anxious and not. Green (The Gospel of Luke) notes in a footnote (p. 436) that the contrast is not really between Martha’s doing or service and Mary’s listening, but between “hearing the word” (namely, discipleship) and “anxious” behavior (namely, the antithesis of discipleship). Continue reading →

Middle Aged Milestones

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There are many “milestones” that mark the passage from “young” to middle-aged. I’m too old to remember them all having given up the notion that I am still in either category. But Joey Knight, a sports writer for the Tampa Bay Times, notes that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers football team has a double marker of middle aged:

  • They are about to start their 47th preseason training camp, and with
  • a 45-year old starting quarterback

In speculating on the possible fortunes of the Bucs in the coming season, Knight writes: “We cite Rocky Balboa here: Time is undefeated. Brady can continue with his revolutionary training methods, meticulous diet and general defiance of the natural order. At some point, he’s going to regress. Will it be this season? So far, there is zero evidence of that. He’s coming off one of his most prolific seasons ever (5,316 passing yards, 43 touchdowns) and was spinning the ball as crisply as ever during the recent mandatory minicamp. But no one — not even the NFL’s resident freak of nature — lasts forever.”

Well… not in this life. But we are all in the “preseason training camp” of this life, preparing for the life to come! Amen!