The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church
Genesis 3:9-15,20  +  John 19:25-34
June 10, 2019

   And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.   

On the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes last year, Robert Cardinal Sarah—the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments—announced the institution of a new obligatory memorial for the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church.  This memorial is to be celebrated every year on Pentecost Monday, which is to say, the day following Pentecost Sunday, which is to say, the second day of the Octave of Pentecost. Continue reading →

Pentecost
Acts 2:1-11  +  1 Cor 12:3-7,12-13  +  Jn 20:19-23
June 9, 2019

   When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together.   

Almost 2000 years ago on this day, the Church was born.  The Church would be nothing without the Holy Spirit.  The Church couldn’t have been born without the Holy Spirit, and she could not live today without the Holy Spirit.  Where the Church is strong, it’s because of the Holy Spirit.  Where the Church is weak, it’s because the Holy Spirit is not given His due. Continue reading →

Saturday of the Final Week of Easter
Acts 28:16-20,30-31  +  John 21:20-25
June 8, 2019

   I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written.   

This morning’s Gospel passage consists of the final six verses of the Gospel according to John.  The Easter Season draws to a close, then, with an almost parenthetical reminder that the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ earthly life are by no means exhaustive.  Nor are they meant to be. Continue reading →

Friday of the Final Week of Easter
Acts 25:13-21  +  John 21:15-19
June 7, 2019

   Peter was distressed that He had said to him a third time, “Do you love me?”   

On these last two weekdays of Easter, our Gospel passage comes from the epilogue of John’s Gospel account.  In these final days, we hear John’s account of Jesus’ “final word”, which echoes what John records time and time again throughout his Scriptural writings (the Book of Revelation, his three epistles, and his Gospel account). Continue reading →

Thursday of the Final Week of Easter
Acts 22:30;23:6-11  +  John 17:20-26
June 6, 2019

   “…so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in Me and I in You.”   

There are many types of unity.  For example, if two persons agree about a political issue, and join a common party, these two persons have political unity.  If two persons agree about a moral teaching, or agree to act in common on behalf of a moral goal, these two persons have moral unity.  If two students study for doctorates in physics, specializing in the same topic, and become the two foremost experts in the world about that topic, these two persons bear a certain intellectual unity. Continue reading →

Wednesday of the Final Week of Easter
Acts 20:28-38  +  John 17:11-19
June 5, 2019

   “…that they may be one just as We are one.”   

Of the four Gospel accounts, John’s is the loftiest and thus is symbolized by an eagle.  In the vocabulary of theology, John has the highest Christology.  One can make the case that the Last Supper discourses—found in John 13-17—make up the loftiest part of John (with the possible exception of the prologue in John 1:1-18).  Within the Last Supper discourses, the seventeenth chapter of John is commonly titled the “High Priestly Prayer” of Jesus, and is the loftiest part of these discourses.  All of this is stated to point out that in this last week of Easter, we are certainly breathing rarified air. Continue reading →

Tuesday of the Final Week of Easter
Acts 20:17-27  +  John 17:1-11
June 4, 2019

   “Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.”   

We are approaching the end of the Easter season.  For seven weeks we have heard of the events surrounding the Resurrection, and how these events have touched the lives of those who encountered Jesus, such as Mary Magdalen, Peter, and Thomas.  We have heard how the lives of these followers of Jesus were changed because they believed in the events they witnessed.  The Church today is also made up of followers of Jesus, those whose lives have been changed by their encounter with the Body of Christ. Continue reading →

Monday of the Final Week of Easter
Acts 19:1-8  +  John 16:29-33
June 3, 2019

   “In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.”   

This coming Sunday’s celebration of Pentecost is the backdrop for all our weekday readings this week.  Wherever we Christians are, we are united in the Mystical Body of Christ, and together we are praying this week for a greater openness to the Gift who is God the Holy Spirit. Continue reading →

PLEASE NOTE:  In most dioceses of the U.S., each year the Seventh Sunday of Easter is replaced by the Solemnity of the Lord’s Ascension.  For the Ascension reflection, click HERE.

The Seventh Sunday of Easter [C]
Acts 7:55-60  +  Rev 22:12-14,16-17,20  +  Jn 17:20-26
June 2, 2019

In the year 398, Saint Augustine of Hippo, the greatest bishop and scholar of the first millennium of the Church, was walking one day along the shore of a sea.  He was meditating in frustration on the mystery of the God’s nature in the Holy Trinity, trying hard to get a grasp on how it could be that there is one God in three persons.  As he continued alongside the breaking waves, he came across a boy with a bucket and shovel, working away.  The bishop asked the boy what he was doing, and the boy replied that he was digging a hole in the sand into which he was going to put the sea.  Without wanting to embarrass the boy, Augustine tried simply to tell him that what he was trying was impossible.  The boy responded, “What I’m doing is no less possible than trying to fit Almighty God into your mind.” Continue reading →