Proverbs 9:3-6; Ephesians 5:15-20; John 6:51-58 This is the fourth Sunday in a row that we’ve been celebrating Chapter Six of John’s Gospel and we are at a breaking point. At first, the crowd he had miraculously fed with a few loaves and fishes were about to make Jesus their king. Now the same people […]
Reflection for Thursday of the 19th Week
Readings Ezekiel 12:1-12; Matthew 18:21-19:1 I don’t think that the first debtor in today’s parable realizes that he’s been forgiven. My suspicion is that he only understands that his strategy was successful. Perhaps he’s the sort of individual who feels he shouldn’t have to suffer the consequences of his choices. I say this because he […]
Abbot Joseph’s Homily for the 19th Sunday of the Year
Saints are spiritual heroes we look up to and yet while they offer encouragement and inspiration they can also be intimidating in their radical commitment to Christ. And so we may find ourselves more inclined to admire rather than emulate them. This is because some of the saints seem to have been fearless, resolute, unwavering, […]
Tuesday of the 19th Week of the Year
The paradox of a scroll tasting sweet to Ezekiel despite being inscribed with lamentation and woe, suggests that it wasn’t the lamentations and woe, per se, that made it sweet, but rather that these were calling God’s rebellious people back to fidelity and friendship. In this sense, all suffering that serves to draw us back […]
Saturday of the 18th Week of the Year
Matthew 17:14-20 A man came up to Jesus, knelt down before him, and said, “Lord, have pity on my son, who is a lunatic and suffers severely; often he falls into fire, and often into water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.” Jesus said in reply, “O faithless and […]
Tuesday of the 18th Week of the Year
The fear of failure can be a very inhibiting state of mind that can constrict our lives and interfere with our full human development—both spiritually and psychologically. Peter can serve as a powerful antidote to this fear. Despite several major failures in his life he doesn’t allow fear of further failure deter him. And so […]
Fr. James’ Homily for the Feast of the Transfiguration, 6 August, 2018
Readings: Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14; 2 Peter 1:16-19; Mark 9:2-10 As the days become noticeably shorter, the sun rising and setting further to the south, we celebrate the feast of Christ’s Transfiguration, when the supra-essential light of his divinity transforms the limits of his humanity. This year we celebrate the feast with Saint Mark’s Gospel in […]
Fr. James’ Homily for the Eighteenth Sunday, Year B, 5 August, 2018
Readings: Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15; Ephesians 4:17, 20-24; John 6:24-35 Had the Gospel passage ended last Sunday as we celebrated it in the liturgy, we would have had a very nice, if challenging, story about Jesus multiplying loaves and fishes for hungry people, eager to hear his word. Even if it ended as it continues today, it […]
A Word from the Cistercian Fathers for August
O Blessed Virgin, regard with what prayers we could have conducted you–and followed you from afar–upon your assent to your Son. May we announce to the world, with the assent of your loving kindness, the grace you found with God, obtaining pardon for the guilty, healing for the sick, strength for the faint-hearted, consolation for […]
Friday of the 17th Week of the Year
Although the formal period of prophecy is said to have ended with John the Baptist, God’s claim to Jeremiah that he constantly sends his servants the prophets still holds true in our own time. Our problem is that we don’t recognize the voices of prophecy sounding in the course of every day calling us to […]