January 14, 2024
2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time During these past years, our ability to communicate with one another has been transformed in ways we could not have imagined years ago. Cell phones put us in contact with one another wherever we are. Caller ID and call waiting assure us we will not miss anyone’s call. We live […]
January 13, 2024
“Follow me.” These are the two simple yet powerful words Jesus spoke to Levi. The Gospel does not indicate that Levi asked him any questions. Where was Jesus leading him? Where was Jesus going? What would Levi be required to do? He knew Jesus was the Lord, and he trusted him. The Gospel tells us […]
January 12, 2024
Today, we read another remarkable story of faith in the Gospel of Saint Matthew. Undaunted by the crowd, some friends of a paralytic carried him on a stretcher and somehow managed to open up the roof so they could lower him for Jesus to see and heal. For Jesus “saw their faith.” Recall that well-known […]
January 11, 2024
Help is On the Way Tough times require a strong appeal for help. We know of those difficult times and pray profoundly, with vigor, humbly, and penitent. But pray we must. The psalmist cries out a lament to God, who seems to have disappeared, taking no part in their anguish, and the psalmist asks why […]
January 10, 2024
How did the news of Jesus healing Peter’s mother-in-law travel so fast without social media or texting? The ancient realities of tribal relationships were important two thousand years ago; Jesus doesn’t arrive at Peter and Andrew’s home alone. James and John accompany him. News at that time traveled faster by word of mouth than today’s […]
January 9, 2024
Hannah praying silently – expressing her heart’s deepest desire – is what struck me in the first reading. It reminds me of what real prayer is. Someone asked me, “Why do we need to pray since God already knows what we need, what we want, and what is good for us?” Many ask this common […]
January 8, 2024
The Baptism of Jesus John the Baptist sees Jesus walking toward him and says, “Look: there is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” I’m still reeling from the celebration of Christmas: recalling the Advent preparations, Gabriel, shepherds, sheep, wise men, Simeon and Anna, the Holy Innocents…and the Church is […]
January 7, 2024
The Epiphany of the Lord The glorious Solemnity of the Epiphany of The Lord has always had a special place in the hearts and history of the Eymardian family since it was the day chosen by our Founder for the first public exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in 1857. Some days later, Father Eymard wrote […]
January 6, 2024
Saint Peter Julian Eymard – First Solemn Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in Paris in 1857 Early in my career, I was blessed with a wise Christian man as a mentor. He once told me that it didn’t matter whether he was being asked to lead the department or sit at a desk stapling papers […]
January 5, 2024
Memorial of Saint John Neumann, Bishop The way we came to know love was that he laid down his life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. The above sentence, from today’s first reading, is appropriate as we begin a new year, as it sums up the basic meaning […]