Sunday Reflections

                As a young man, I was always inspired by the generous care that I saw embodied in the priests and brothers whom I had met.  Our family attended a parish that was ministered by Franciscan priests and brothers, my high school was staffed with many diocesan priests, and my college had Resurrectionists who served as administrators, teachers, and campus ministers.  At each stage of my life, I found that their generous service and care of others stirred something within me to want to do the same.   Later in life, I realiz

           At the very beginning of his public ministry, Jesus called others to come after him so that he could make them “fishers of men and women” (Mark 1:17).  He began to teach them, and sent them out two by two, giving them authority over unclean spirits.  Mark’s gospel reports that they enjoyed great success, as the disciples “drove out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them” (Mark 6:13).

We are all called to be prophets – those who speak for God to his people.  Ezekiel was a reluctant prophet.  St.

The readings for this Sunday stress that faith involves risk taking. On the one hand, we can read both incidents as reflections on how to pray with faith. The woman gives witness to audacious prayer, and Jairus to the value and necessity of prayer for others. In combination with the first reading, the Gospel leads us to reflect on how much our faith leads us beyond our fears.

                I always wondered why Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist, was rendered speechless by the angel when he questioned how he and his wife Elizabeth would have a son in their old age.

I remember my parents, both avid gardeners, having seed catalogues and choosing various plants and seeds for our flower beds.  There is no catalogue for the “seed” that Jesus is speaking of.  The seed of faith is a precious gift that we were privileged to receive, at times in mysterious and subtle ways.  At our Baptism we received that gift of life with God, and that “seed” of the kingdom of God grew and developed in us.  Perhaps we can think of the people who nurtured, watered, tended, pruned, and fertilized our “seed” of faith.  Praise be to God!  Each one of

A pastor was invited to lunch at the home of a parishioner and the family. The wife worked very hard to put on a good meal for him and the family. As the meal was ending the pastor remarked that he had never had a meal like that in his life. The youngest child responded, “It’s okay Father, neither have we!”

We see the making of well-intended promises in the Last Supper in Mark’s gospel. Earlier in Mark (chapter 10), James and John have boldly asked Jesus for seats at His right and left when He comes into His glory. Lest we think that these two disciples are the exception to the rule, Mark reports that all the other disciples were “indignant” when they found out what James and John had done. They wanted these seats for themselves!

On this Solemn Feast of the Most Holy Trinity we celebrate the life with share with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  Just as we have a unique relationship with each member of our family – our father, our mother, our sibling(s) – so too, upon reflection, our relationship with each member of the Holy Trinity is unique.  Each person, united in their divinity, has its unique ‘personality’ and ‘function’ in the Trinity.  I came to a particular awareness of this in the Spiritual Exercises of St.

This weekend we celebrate an important Feast in the liturgical year – Pentecost.  We celebrate that the Holy Spirit, which Jesus had promised, came upon the first disciples, empowering them to go out and preach the Good News, and to BE the Good News.  We have all received the Spirit, in the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, however for many this dynamic role of the Holy Spirit remains dormant and the grace of God unused because we have not opened ourselves to the Spirit.  This requires a risk on our part, because the Holy Spirit, active in us, will manifest itself in in