Festina Lente[1] When I was in college, I read an insightful article by the Japanese Catholic author Shusaku Endo.[2] He told the story of an ancient Buddhist temple atop a high mountain in Japan. The temple was so high and remote that it took pious pilgrims hours and even days
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One of my favorite biblical characters is none other than the Canaanite woman described in the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew: At that time Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, “Have pity
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One thing I ask of the LORD; this I seek: to dwell in the LORD’s house all the days of my life, to gaze on the LORD’s beauty, to visit his temple. –Psalm 27:4– In order to gain adherents to any particular doctrine, it is necessary to change truth into
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A Homily for the Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A 18 October 2020 Shine like lights in the world as you hold on to the word of life. –Gospel Acclamation– I bet some of you are familiar with the children’s author Robert McCloskey, who died in 2003. He
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A Homily for those Preparing for Confession Come now, let us set things right, says the LORD: Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they may become white as wool. —Isaiah 1:18— You’ve heard the common expression: as
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A Homily for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary time, Year A This past Monday night, as I was coming back to my rectory from a Forty Hours celebration at Saint Theresa’s Church in Hellertown, the young man who happened to be driving me slowed his car and then came to
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A Homily for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A During the twenty-four years that I taught theology at Bethlehem Catholic High School, I was in residence at Notre Dame Rectory. One afternoon as I was sitting in the kitchen, in came the pastor, Msgr. Bill Handges. “Hi, Bill!”
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A Homily for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A As Hurricane Harvey was approaching Texas in late August of 2017, officials in that state, in no uncertain terms, were telling residents in the path of the storm to get out, to waste no time in evacuating. If you
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The statutes of the LORD are true, all of them just; more desirable than gold, than a hoard of purest gold. –Psalm 19:10-11– In his massive book, The Future of Life, naturalist Edward O. Wilson describes a fascinating battle between two species of ants. Red ants attack black ants.
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A Homily for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A Peter said to him [viz. Jesus] in reply, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward
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