May 14, 2026

Feast of Saint Matthias, Apostle So somehow, somewhere, they cast lots. And out of hundreds of millions of human possibilities, the lot fell to each of us reading these reflections. To be what? To do what? Well, in a word, to be a friend of Jesus – as the disciple Matthias was called. In the […]

May 13, 2026

Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima In today’s reading from the Book of Acts, we see Paul preaching in Athens on The Acropolis, where he has discovered an altar dedicated “To an Unknown God.” “In him we live and move and have our being, for we too are his offspring.” Surely one of the most […]

May 12, 2026

In John 16:5–11, Jesus prepares his disciples for his departure and promises the coming of the Advocate, the Spirit of Truth, who will remain with them. Though grief and sorrow fill their hearts, he reveals that his going is not abandonment but the gift of a deeper presence, one that guides, consoles, and convicts. In […]

May 11, 2026

Jesus prepares His disciples for a truth we often try to avoid: following Him will not always be easy. In today’s Gospel, He speaks of the coming of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, who will testify to Him. But He also reminds them that they, too, must testify… even in the face of rejection. This […]

May 10, 2026

6th Sunday of Easter The night before he died, Jesus opened his heart to his disciples. He spoke of his love for them and assured them that he would not leave them, orphans. What a strange term to use. To understand why Jesus chose this image, we have to gaze into our own hearts. There’s […]

May 9, 2026

I was supervising a large nursing facility, a place where people came to recover from surgery or to live out the final days of their lives. The hallways were dim, the air often stale, and the atmosphere heavy with the weight of suffering. It was a challenge to maintain hope. One day, I came across […]

May 8, 2026

As we celebrate the joy of the resurrection, we need to return to the night before Jesus died, to be with the apostles in preparation for a new commandment and a new covenant in his blood. Jesus was bonding them in an unbreakable bond of love. The fifteenth chapter of John’s gospel is a lengthy […]

May 7, 2026

I love to read about the early workings of the Church in the Acts of the Apostles! In our first reading today, the Church is addressing whether and how the Law of Moses should apply to Gentile converts, as well as the increasing diversity of the early Christian community. The decision of the Church is […]

May 6, 2026

“Every branch that bears no fruit he cuts away, and any branch that does bear fruit he prunes to make it bear even more.” For those of us who are serious gardeners, this pruning process is an all-too-familiar regular task. I have several old rose bushes in my backyard that need yearly attention. Some of […]

May 5, 2026

Paul of Tarsus has been called the Apostle of the Gentiles, and for good reason. After his conversion on the road to Damascus from Saul, the hardline Jew, to peripatetic Paul, the Christian missionary, he traveled thousands of miles by land and sea to spread the Good News throughout large parts of Western Asia and […]