Posts from March 2024

We finished our forty day lenten journey of sacrifice and have come now to the great feast of the Resurrection. It is a feast of new life, new beginnings and a renewed and stronger faith. I’m sure everyone will be celebrating today with family and friends. Maybe it will be a family meal and get together, or a long awaited phone call or personal visit. In whatever way you celebrate today, celebrate the Feast of Easter with joy and happiness…

How do you pass on a living faith to the next generation? A religious sociologist did a survey. His results showed that one of the highest factors of passing on the faith came in homes where religious objects, artworks, and symbols were commonplace. It could be a family Bible, a religious icon or a crucifix. The Palms that we receive today are a powerful symbol of faith, standing at the gateway to Jesus’ Passion, Death and Resurrection. They speak not…

In the start of today’s Gospel, some Greeks said to Philip, “We would like to see Jesus!” In my priesthood, I’ve been asked that many times, from little children asking what does Jesus look like, to teenagers questioning their faith, to adults wondering if God is really present in our world with all the bad things that are going on. None of these people wanted a theological or Biblical discourse. In answering their question, I start with a question for…

Grandma was in her glory because her grandchildren were circled all around her. She gloried in their presence, looking at each fresh-scrubbed face, peering, it seemed, deep down into each of their souls. And she liked what she saw. “Aren’t you beautiful!” she would say to the girls, and “Don’t you look handsome!” she would exclaim to the boys. And then she would grab hold of each one and pull that child into her big, cozy grandma hug. She would…

In today’s Gospel, we hear and see Jesus chasing the vendors out of the temple: “stop making my Father’s House a marketplace.” The Early Christians were not perfect, but as a community they tried to seek the best way to live the Christian life. How about us today? We are not perfect but do we try our best to live a Christian life. Amidst the busyness of our lives, we are challenged even to make Mass every Sunday. But that…