Above the altar in the Chapel of the Crucifixion in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre — traditionally recognized as the spot where Jesus was nailed to the cross — is a mosaic. A life-sized Jesus lies spread out on the ground where the soldier has just finished hammering nails into his hands. A woman […]
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THE POWER OF A PSALM: God’s love upholds me
This morning I am praying for a mom, a dad, and their tiny newborn who is struggling for his life. Something is terribly wrong with his heart, and their hearts are breaking, too. Everything came back in a rush when I heard it: the shock, the ambulance, the worry, the hospital, the heart-wrenching anxiety and […]
GOD IS GOOD — ALL THE TIME
Give thanks to the Lord, FOR he is good; FOR his steadfast love endures forever! That little word, “for,” is the reason I can have a thankful heart. I can be sick, or out of work, or lost, or without love. I can be in debt or up to my eyeballs in trouble. But always, […]
THIRSTY? CHOOSE WHERE TO GO WITH YOUR LONGING
Lent is making me grumpy. I decided this year to give up more food than I usually do and my stomach and head are not happy. So Sunday’s readings really speak to me: will I be like Israel, complaining in the desert, or will I be like the woman of Samaria who looked to Jesus […]
WHEN IT FEELS LIKE GOD IS NOT THERE: WAIT! — Psalm 62
Before our daughter could walk, I would set her on the floor on a blanket with a few toys while I did the dishes or dusted or opened the mail. She always played happily by herself – as long as I stayed within sight. If I stepped into the next room for even a minute: […]
GOD CALLS HIMSELF “MERCY”
With all the talk of mercy this year – and especially today, Divine Mercy Sunday – do you ever wonder what it means that God IS mercy, or that his name is mercy? You might recall that God told Moses at the burning bush that his name is I AM. But that only begins to […]
HOW DO I LOVE THEE? A Lesson from Tabgha
Six heart-shaped rocks line the shore at Tabgha on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galiliee. They may have been pulled from an ancient quarry, remnants of old synagogues which traditionally had two heart-shaped columns at the rear corners. Sometime in the fifth to ninth century AD, they were placed in a colonnade commemorating […]
ONE FUNERAL AND A WEDDING
Today, I’m mourning at a funeral: the daughter of a friend. In just a week, I’ll be rejoicing at a wedding. Life, in all its pain and glory, makes us stop and look beyond it. What waits for us at the end? Where will this young girl go? Why could she not have been that bride? […]
FEELING EMPTY INSIDE? GIVE, AND IT SHALL BE GIVEN
Do you ever feel empty, and wonder why God doesn’t fill you? He may want you to try giving, first. 1 Kings 17 tells of the time God sends a drought on Israel because of the wickedness of the king. When the rivers begin to run dry, he sends his prophet Elijah to Zarephath in […]
BE NOT AFRAID!
“Be Not Afraid!…Swing wide the gates to Christ!” Karol Wojtyla proclaimed this from the balcony at St. Peter’s Square back in 1978, the day he became Pope John Paul II. How fitting that today, as he is canonized in that same square, we read the gospel of Jesus “swinging wide the gates” of the Upper […]
