A University of California study says we are consuming information at the clip of more than 100,000 words per day through the deluge of texts, alerts, notifications, work and personal emails, news headlines, blog feeds and social media posts. Whew! How much better would it be if more of our daily words were meaningful, creative,...
These days the popular chorus announces all-clear. Bishops, too, are heard clamoring about normal. Beware. Such superficial sentiment presupposes a pre-pandemic standard high in virtue and lively in practice. The current call ought to be a more somber and determined resolve to consider critically what has happened, how we have been affected and what our...
Mark 6:7-13 The call of Christ signals deep personal conversion, not rousing worldly success driven verified by record metrics. Christ commissions intentional disciples to proclaim God’s Kingdom and we will be empowered by the Holy Spirit to carry out our divine mission.
The only measuring stick our blessed Lord ever will use when we stand before His throne is love. How much have we loved Him and how much have we loved our neighbor?
Mark 5:21-43 The Gospel Reading presents two miracles both involving people who have urgent needs for healing. On his way to the Capernaum home of Jairus’ daughter who is seriously ill, Jesus encounters a woman who has spent every penny she had trying to find a cure for lengthy malady. Take special notice, however, that ...
Mark 4:35-41 The Gospel Reading places us in a boat battling to stay afloat during a bad storm. Incredulously, Jesus remains asleep, resting comfortably in the care of the Father who keeps careful watch over Him and His mission. At the disciples’ insistence, Jesus awakens and commands the furious gale to quiet and be still....
The LORD takes the smallest to do amazing things (Mark 4:26-34). Saint Therese, the Little Flower, comes to experience God’s graciousness as the “little way.” She states: “To reach perfection, I do not need to grow up. On the contrary, I need to stay little, to become more and more little.” So, then,...
It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade. +Mark...
Mark 4:26-34 In the Gospel Reading this Sunday, Jesus tells two parables about the growth of the Kingdom of God. Each story has a different purpose. The first parable emphasizes the seed’s own growth. Neither can the farmer can give the seed the power to grow nor make its gradual growth happen. The second parable...
“Above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Colossians 3:14 ESV). Charity is the fundamental duty of a Christian. It is what makes one an intentional disciple and a church or parish a community of intentional disciples. All spiritual initiatives, programs and resolutions are only of value to the degree...
