May 29, 2025
Time is often experienced as truly being “relative”. When we are having a great time with good friends, it seems that our time together “flies,” but when we’re anxiously waiting for news of a loved one’s test results, time seems to stand still. Perhaps that’s how it was for Jesus’ disciples as they contemplated: how […]
May 28, 2025
Jesus reassures his disciples (and all of us) that the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, is coming as a guide to all truth (John 16:12-15). The Father, Jesus (the Son), and the Spirit speak with one voice and are one. These few verses unfold the Trinity as one God without the slightest degree of […]
May 27, 2025
Men, what must I do to be saved? As we draw closer to the solemnity of Pentecost, we read the wonderful actions of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles and the growing church. It is touching to see how Paul and Silas abandon themselves entirely to God without fear of the crowd or prison. They […]
May 26, 2025
Saint Philip Neri, Priest Philip Neri (1515-1595), born in Florence, spent most of his life in Rome, where he founded a society of secular priests called the Congregation of the Oratory. He ministered to people on the margins, orphans, prostitutes, the poor and the sick. He helped to educate the young and came to know […]
May 25, 2025
6th Sunday of Easter Peace, I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled… Christ speaks these words to each of us today. They are also spoken to immigrants threatened with deportation, to victims of the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, to victims of school shootings and […]
May 24, 2025
Do we heed and listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and do we obey them? Timothy and Paul are on their missionary trip through the Phrygian and Galatian territory, and the church is growing and being strengthened. Yet when they were headed towards the province of Asia, they were prevented by the Holy […]
May 23, 2025
Saint James, the son of Zebedee the fisherman, recited the prophet Amos and fostered the Church that Jesus had begun. The former scribes and pharisees, new Christians themselves, were again a problem for the early church, demanding that rabbinic laws be followed for the gentile catechumenate. But it was St. James that silenced the argument […]
May 22, 2025
The first reading introduces us to the dynamics of the Christian community with its new members drawn from the ranks of the Gentiles. The discomfort felt because these new members neglected certain Jewish rules and practices became the subject of dissension and had to be resolved. At the same time, the power of the Holy […]
May 21, 2025
Jesus said to his disciples: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower…. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.” Jesus uses the imagery of a vine and branches to illustrate the vital connection between believers and himself, emphasizing that abiding in him […]
May 20, 2025
In the call of the 72 disciples in the Gospel of Saint Luke, Jesus urges them to say when they enter a house, “Peace to this house.” Today’s Gospel in Saint John harkens back to those words of Jesus at the Last Supper, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.” At […]