The movie The Hobbit, which hit the theaters in 2012, broke all sorts of box office records. No wonder! J.R.R. Tolkien’s book of the same title, on which the film is based, is a timeless masterpiece. It tells the story of how Bilbo Baggins, a creature known as a hobbit,
Read more
So should it be with you. When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.’” –Luke 17:10– It was August of 1969. There she stood on our front doorstep, a wide-eyed, impossibly thin teenager, speaking
Read more
So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart. –Matthew 18:35– I firmly believe that the eight most difficult words in the Our Father are: “as we forgive those who trespass against us.” For most of us, especially if we
Read moreWhen I was young, I watched a really awesome wildlife program on television. It was all about, of all things, the tsetse fly. The bloodsucking tsetse fly, if I remember correctly, was a real nuisance in Africa. It caused diseases in both livestock and humans, including African sleeping
Read more
If then any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. –2 Corinthians 5:17– I picked up the bud vase from Mary’s kitchen table and inspected the beautiful artificial roses it contained. “Can you guess what those roses are made of?” Mary asked. “Silk?” “No.”
Read more
And people brought to him [i.e. Jesus] a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked
Read more
One of my more vivid childhood memories has to do with my father on winter, weekday mornings. While it was still dark, Dad would come into the room where my brother John and I slept and would turn on the overhead lights. “Get up, Boys!” he would announce. “Time
Read more
A Homily for the Third Sunday of Lent, Year C And he told them this parable: “There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, ‘For three
Read more
A Homily for the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C I am continually amazed at how the effects of sin are so very far reaching. The results of sin, regardless of whether the original sin has been forgiven, endure from one generation to another. Sin, like a rock
Read more
A Homily for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B And rising long before daybreak, he went out and departed into a desert place, and there he prayed. –Mark 1:35– Ladies and gentlemen, I hold in my hand a box that contains something so important, that, if it
Read more