Reflections for Ordinary Time

“Can’t you just do as you’re told for once!” Maybe you remember being on the receiving end of that comment, or maybe you’ve been on the other side of the conversation. Maybe you’ve been fortunate not to have said it out loud, but haven’t you felt it sometime? Instructions, commandments, “just do it” – they […]

Other than air and water, salt is the most important need for our physical well-being. Animals will travel miles for it. It was one of the earliest commodities to be traded in human society. If salt were to lose its potency that would indeed be a disaster. So, while being compared to salt may not

The Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:1-12a), also known as the Beatitudes, is Matthew’s compilation of some of the most notable and uplifting sayings of Jesus. Luke uses some of the same sayings, in a different context and with much more of a good cop / bad cop style: “Blessed are you who are poor

The Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:1–12a), also known as the Beatitudes, is Matthew’s compilation of some of the most notable and uplifting sayings of Jesus. Luke uses some of the same sayings (Lk 6:20–26), in a different context, with much more of a good cop / bad cop style: “Blessed are you who are

Last week we heard Paul’s introduction to the first letter that he wrote to his church in Corinth. This is probably the earliest of his letters that we have and the first written testimony from any Christian teacher. We’ll be working our way through this letter in our Readings over the next few weeks. We

Our Christmas season leaves us with a clear message about who Jesus is: son of Mary, God with us, savior of the world. Now we immediately move to a related but perhaps more difficult question – who are we? What does this recognition of Jesus mean for our understanding of ourselves? In our readings today

Christmas more than any other of our feasts displays the diversity of our gospel tradition. You might expect that how God came to earth, became a human being, would be a key element in the Christian tradition. There should be a pretty clear consensus about this – it is the thing that distinguishes Christianity from

Isaiah says: “Here is your God … he comes to save you” (Is 35:1-6a, 10) Words like these have doubtless been used at many times in many different situations. The psalm we use today says “The Lord God keeps faith forever, … The Lord shall reign forever”. (Ps 146:6-7, 8-9, 9-10) John the Baptist channels that

Last week we were challenged to consider what it means to be alive. We probably don’t think about it much on a day to day basis, but what it is to be alive is not as obvious as we might expect. My mother spent the last years of her life unable to communicate and without

Jesus had many debates with the religious authorities of his time, typically referred to as the Scribes and Pharisees. Usually they were complaining about something he had done, or trying to trip him up in some legalistic argument. Typically he diverts their comments in an unexpected direction as he tries to get them (or us)