The Gospel writers were not like modern journalists. Journalists today are pre-occupied with facts and photos and ‘spin’ and, ironically, they get things wrong a scary percentage of the time. The evangelists are interested in what happened only because it reveals the truth – the truth about Jesus. Indeed, Luke...
Signs are important things, especially street signs; they tell us a lot. I notice kids love to twist signs around so they point in the wrong direction, maybe we’ve even done it ourselves, and most of us would have been a victim of that little trick once or twice in...
During the 1st weekend of Advent, I shared with you as to how Advent is a time of waiting. The experience of waiting is not merely in preparation for something or someone. Waiting has a fullness, a significance, a meaning of its own. Witness the joy and desire in waiting. ...
As we prepare for the Nativity of our Lord the issues that surround us this Advent season are enormous. Once more this year, we struggle to find peace – peace among the nations and among ethnic groups, peace in our own homeland, and peace between civilizations. Drug problem still plagues...
It can be hard for us to understand John the Baptist today as hard for us now as it was for the people who gathered in the wilderness to hear his words some 2000 years ago. Few people then really comprehended what he meant when he declared his mission was ...
Penance, Preparation, Patience, Perseverance… Advent – It blends together a penitential spirit, very similar to Lent, a liturgical theme of preparation for the Second and Final Coming of the Lord, called the Parousia, and a joyful theme of patience as we get ready to re-live the birth in Bethlehem. And...
Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Palestine, stands face-to-face with the Lord of the universe. Pilate is agitated by the circumstances, but thinking clearly because it’s still early. Jesus is exhausted from the first twelve hours of his passion, but his eyes glow with the love and determination that had...
Among the many memories of my youth I clearly remember the moment when it first dawned on me that when I died the world would go on happily without me. The thought came as an unpleasant shock, which no one else seemed particularly interested in sharing with me. ‘When I...
Every week, in our Liturgy of the Word, we meet new people. We see them interacting with one another, we listen to them speak, we admire them, pity them, are attracted to them or repulsed by them. Some are close to God, some are far from him, some repent, and...
The Book of Genesis tells us that “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27). The New Testament book of 1 John tells us that “God loved us first that we might love Him.” (1...