Take a moment and look back over the last 10 weekdays (or so) and consider the first reading for daily Mass. (If you look at today’s readings, you can use the calendar feature to quickly located the previous readings of the day). The readings are from the Acts of the Apostles. The readings tells the story of the early Christian Church growing out from the fear behind the doors of the Upper Room moving out to the world with a divine mission. The salvation promised to Israel in the Old Testament and accomplished by Jesus is now under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and is extending to include the Gentiles. And it is motley cast of characters that are being send, divinely chosen representatives: “witnesses chosen by God in advance” (Acts 10:41). Continue reading
Walking Grace
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At the beginning of this time of pandemic, it was interesting to read stories of people on an extended wilderness sojourn as they returned to their normal life. In the several weeks away, they discovered there was nothing normal about the world they had left. They returned to find covid-19, masks, social distancing, sheltering at home, and a world reporting and tracking pandemic. 
Next Sunday is the 
I suspect that most of us here share a fundamental experience with sheep. First we confuse lambs and sheep. Most of us think about lambs who seem wonderfully cute, are gentle of spirit, and how can you not love them? I mean, really. And our experience is mostly limited to the petting zoo/farm context. I suspect that as children we turned to our moms and said: “Mom can we have one? I promise to feed him and take care of him….. please…!!” 
This weekend I was in the back of the church and saw that the Lenten Giving Tree was still up, with unclaimed tags dangling on the barren branches. Apparently, it has been weeks since I have been in the back of the church. My world has gotten so much smaller. I wondered what else was back there as a reminder of a time before pandemic. There were copies of the bulletin for the Fourth Sunday of Lent. And here we are now at the Fourth Sunday of Easter. Things change. It is inevitable. It is the way of things. 
The daily Mass gospels for this week (
Today is the Feast of St. Catherine of Siena – Doctor of the Church, along with St. Francis of Assisi, patron of Italy, mystic, activist, and author – and the list goes on. There is lots of online articles about her life, her writings and more, but through the auspices of Bishop Barron and his Word-on-Fire ministry, today only (April 29, 2020) you can watch his video on 
This is a wonderful article by Ms. Jennifer Manning, mom, teacher, scholar and gifted writer. Jennifer’s mom works with me in the parish and passed her daughter’s “musings” along. And with Jennifer’s permission, I pass this along for your enjoyment.
friarmusings 