Ingratitude towards God results from two chief causes: Firstly, a failure to recognize God’s gifts showered on us every day, and secondly, an even more fundamental failure to recognize God’s presence in our life. Accordingly, developing a spirit of gratitude by recognizing and acknowledging God’s gifts helps heighten our awareness of God’s presence in our […]
STAINED GLASS WINDOW
Many inquire about the fate of the beautiful stained-glass window that used to be at the back of the chapel. It is presently undergoing restoration in a very delicate and painstaking process that has taken longer than originally anticipated. However, the good news is that it will be perfectly restored and its return is expected […]
Tuesday of the 31st Week of the Year
While it is important that we never be presumptuous about our salvation, it is equally important that we don’t experience undue anxiety about making it into the eternal banquet of heaven. And so although Jesus warns that none of those men who were invited will taste my dinner, their exclusion is based not so much […]
Friday of the 29th Week of the Year
The psalmist reminds us how good and how pleasant it is when brothers live in unity and in seeking this unity Paul offers three important exhortatory words: bear, strive, and preserve. Although the perfection of unity in community is one which will only be fully realized in the heavenly kingdom, we are called to strive […]
Tuesday of the 29th Week of the Year
Servants and offering service do not, typically, conjure up thoughts of privilege or enjoyment. And yet, Jesus seems to align his own eternal happiness with girding himself and waiting upon those who have faithfully longed for his return and opened immediately to his knock. In this we encounter the Christian paradox whereby service and the […]
Friday of the 27th Week of the Year
Jesus is not typically associated with either/or thinking and black and white categories; but today is one instance when he does: Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. Interestingly, Jesus doesn’t say whoever is not for me is against me, but whoever is not with me […]
Friday of the 26th Week of the Year
Saints whose lives were filled with direct and frequent experiences of the divine, along with an abundance of supernatural encounters with angels and saints, can evoke a holy envy in those whose spiritual lives seem to be one long, obscure, and arid journey in the darkness. However, if this describes you, Jesus makes a point […]
Wednesday of the 26th Week of the Year
It’s interesting that in today’s gospel Jesus challenges two of three potential disciples to greater self-giving, while cautioning the third to curb his enthusiasm. In each case, Jesus was looking into each person’s heart and seeing what each person was as yet unable to see. In the first he saw the still untested zeal and […]
Friday of the 25th Week of the Year
Impermanence and change are the inevitable consequences of being bound by space and time. In our fallen state, birth must eventually surrender to death; times of joy and mirth must yield to those of mourning and sorrow; and progress and building up all too often precede disintegration, and collapse. Inner peace in the face of […]
Wednesday of the 25th Week of the Year
Jesus’ instruction that the apostles must shake the dust from [their] feet in response to those who don’t welcome their proclamation of the kingdom, highlights a twofold responsibility: On the part of those who hear the proclamation there is the responsibility to receive the good news and respond accordingly—or face the consequences. And for those […]