Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents?     Human experience has become so intertwined with sin that none of us are untouched by it and the question seems valid. But it’s really an attempt to exonerate myself: if it’s this blind man’s sin or his parents’ sin, it’s not my sin. But what […]

    Temptation is not a symptom of a nature, crippled by contingency; angels can be tempted. Being tempted proves of what I am made, who I really am.     Jesus’ temptations are by no means a pious charade with a guaranteed conclusion. They constitute a genuine test revealing who he is, corresponding to his actual […]

It was joy, a grace, and an honor to receive a Pastoral Visit from our Bishop, Michael Burbidge (accompanied by Fr. Joseph Farrell), this last Friday. After celebrating the Eucharist and challenging us to a fruitful participation in the graces of the Lenten Season, Bishop Michael was given a tour of the monastery, before addressing […]

We initiate the holy Lenten Season with our annual Ash Wednesday Mass at 7.30 a.m. on February 26. There will be the customary imposition of ashes as we pray to open our hearts to the special graces of this penitential season in preparation for the joyful celebration of Our Lord’s Resurrection. Also, a Mass Time […]

    In today’s Gospel there’s probably something to make each of us wince.     It’s evidently an important passage, located as it is after the Beatitudes. In a sense, today’s Gospel might be a practical guide for living the beatitudes; but that makes it no more pleasant to hear.     If you feel you’ve never […]

Pay heed to this, you who pray on the run but dally with books, you who are fervent in reading and lukewarm in praying.  Reading should serve prayer, should dispose the affections, should neither devour the hours nor gobble up the moments of prayer.  When you read you are taught about Christ, but when you […]

Each one’s heart is a sailing boat [that cannot] be wrecked so long as we fill our minds only with what is good. When you have to listen to abuse, that means you are being buffeted by the wind; when your anger is roused, you are being tossed by the waves. So when the winds […]

In John the Baptist’s acknowledgment, I recognize a very constant dynamic of the spiritual life: I did not know him…But when John saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and remain upon him, then he knows that Jesus is the Son of God.    One of my favorite passages in the Book […]

10 January, Friday after Epiphany: 1 Jn 5:5-13; Lk 5:12-16     A couple of days ago, in Mark’s Gospel, we heard that Jesus had withdrawn to pray; today, in Luke’s Gospel we’re told that he’d withdraw to deserted places to pray.     As we digest the richness of this Christmas season, let’s not reduce that […]

The celebration of the Baptism of the Lord (next Sunday) will mark the official ending of this short Christmas Season and the resumption of so-called “Ordinary Time.” This liturgical transition is a rather apt symbol of a similar process that takes place repeatedly in our spiritual lives—that is, a return to ordinariness. We have just […]