Every third Thursday, like clockwork, a card arrives. It’s been four years since Mark started the day-long treatments, and there is always a card waiting when he gets home. How do they do it? His sisters. One’s in California, two are in Ohio, and still they figure out how to time a fresh message of […]
I CHOSE YOU TO BEAR FRUIT … THAT WILL LAST?
I wonder what Jesus meant when he said he appointed us “to go and bear fruit that will remain.” If there is one thing fruit does not do, that’s remain. Leave it out on the counter too long and the fruit flies come, and the rot, and pretty soon those apples and grapes are good […]
THE FRUIT THAT COMES FROM ABIDING IN CHRIST
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. … By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples” (John 15:5,8) John 15 is one of the best-loved of all the […]
Good Friday, Holy Saturday; ENTERING THE DARK AND THE SILENCE
Today we enter the darkness. We feel the betrayal of Judas, then stand at a distance with Peter, deny Jesus ourselves. Like Peter, we are afraid. What use is there, for all this suffering? On Good Friday, we enter into it. We stand horrified beside the cross. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” […]
Palm Sunday: ENTERING THE NEW COVENANT
Readings for Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. At the Procession with Palms: Mk 11:1-10 or Jn 12:12-16. At the Mass: Isa 50:4-7; Psa 22:8-9, 17-20, 23-24; Phil 2:6-11; Mk 14:1 – 15:47. My most vivid childhood memory of Easter is the Palm Sunday morning we visited a community of religious sisters. I must have […]
5th Sunday of Lent: ANNOUNCING THE NEW COVENANT
Readings for the 5th Sunday of Lent: Jer 31:31-34; Ps 51:3-4, 12-15; Heb 5:7-9; Jn 12:20-33 (if you hear different readings, your parish may be using the Year A readings that go with the Scrutinies for RCIA) The night before I turned sixteen, I couldn’t sleep for crying. High school wasn’t easy for me. Not […]
4th Sunday of Lent: CALLED BACK TO COVENANT
Readings for the 4th Sunday of Lent: 2 Chr 36:14-16,19-23; Ps 137:1-6; Eph 2:4-10; Jn 3:14-21 (if you hear different readings, your parish may be using the Year A readings that go with the Scrutinies for RCIA) The honeymoon didn’t last long. In fact, it hadn’t even started. The people were still wearing their wedding clothes, […]
3rd Sunday of Lent: COVENANT WITH MOSES
Readings for the 3rd Sunday of Lent: Ex 20:1-3, 7-8, 12-17; Ps 19:8-11; 1 Cor 1:22-25; Jn 2:13-25 (if you hear different readings, your parish may be using the Year A readings that go with the Scrutinies for RCIA) “Sarah, do you take Mark for your lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day […]
2nd Sunday of Lent: COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM
Readings for the 2nd Sunday of Lent: Gen 22:1-2,9A,10-13,15-18; Psa 116: 10,15,16-17,18-19; Rom 8:31B-34; Mk 9:2-10. Our third child was being baptized, and the priest did something at the end I’ve never seen before or since. “Lay the child on the altar,” he said. We walked forward, and Mark laid Clay down on his back […]
1st Sunday of Lent: COVENANT WITH NOAH
Readings for the 1st Sunday of Lent: Gen 9:8-15; Psa 25:4-9; 1 Pe 3:18-22; Mk 1:12-15 Adam was not aware. He lived in blissful beauty, he did not know the primal chaos. He couldn’t know the bleak facts of life without God: darkness; void; formless waste. He did not witness the glory of land rising […]
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