Something Should Arise In Us Today
Dear Brothers and Sisters, It helped me a lot to spend more time this week thinking and preparing for the Ascension since it is celebrated on a Sunday this year. I was struck by the fact that Jesus does not go away. He physically leaves but he is not gone. You can say he is…
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I Will Not Leave You Orphans
Dear Brothers and Sisters, How did Peter know that we have a voice inside of us that tells us to do this and don’t do that, avoid this person and don’t think yourself better than that one. Does he know this because he is the first apostle, the leader of the gang or does he…
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Christ’s Way Is Wide And Spacious!
Dear Brothers and Sisters, The gospel is one of the most profound discourses of Christ (John 14: 1-12). The apostles were most likely devastated about news of the betrayal of Judas, his announcement that he is leaving soon and the prediction of Peter’s triple denial. You think you are having a bad day. Most of…
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Do You Recognize The Voice Of The Shepherd?
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Peter is addressing slaves in the letter that we hear from him today (1 Peter 2:20-25). I found it striking because he tells them that they have not been called to be slaves, but to be like Christ. So if they are punished for doing something poorly then there is no…
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The One You Cannot See Is With You, Always!
Dear Friends, It was embarrassing to hear the Catholic Governor of New York say of the pandemic: “The number is down because we brought the number down. God did not do that. Faith did not do that.” We did it, only us!! Another Governor, the fifth of the Roman province of Judea, was told: “You…
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Locked Doors Didn’t Give The Apostles Peace, Only Christ!
Dear Brothers and Sisters, It was in the midst of two world wars that annihilated millions of people, Jesus Christ wanted his message of mercy to resound to all who needed to hear it. He did this through a humble young nun in Poland, St. Faustina Kowalska. It was in the 1930’s when Christ began…
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They Embraced His Feet
Dear Friends, A friend of mine with a wife and six kids had his esophagus removed a week ago because of a tumor that had grown for many years. You thought you had problems. And in the hospital after the surgery the nurses were calling him “tangled” due to the amount of drains and IV’s…
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I Cannot Curse God For Anything In My Life!
Dear Brothers and Sisters, St. Francis de Sales uses the images of bees many times in his renowned book called The Introduction to the Devout Life, a spiritual classic, that maybe you can read these days of seclusion. Did you know that on a windy day a bee will carry a pebble so that it…
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Lord, Untie Us!
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Life is not the highest value. There are others that are higher: faith, charity, the possibility of giving your life for another. The history of the Church has given us tens of thousands of examples in every century: the early martyrs, Maximilian Kolbe, Thomas More, the martyrs of the Spanish Civil…
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Irritation Often Leads To Enlightenment!
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Malcolm Muggeridge, a well-known British journalist and author, made a movie of Mother Teresa of Calcutta and he described filming the Home for the Dying in his book on this saint. He was worried because the lighting in that room was very poor and so they did some filming outside as…
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