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Several years ago, I had the opportunity to be in Jerusalem for Holy Week. On Palm Sunday I joined hundreds of people from around the world

Jesus accomplished His life's purpose on earth. He showed us how merciful and loving God is. Jesus shared God's love and mercy with each person He met.

In today’s Gospel, an account that begins with Jesus curing a blind man develops into a story of faith.

The Gospel account of the Transfiguration depicts the full glory of the divine shining through the humanity of Jesus

As you receive your ashes this Ash Wednesday, the Church will recieve you with "Repent, and believe in the Gospel".

“Strings of streetlights, even stop lights, blink a bright red, and green” goes the song… It always, always amazes me that no matter how hard life can become, at this time of year we see strings and strings of streetlights and houselights.....

Trafficking? Is that a Christmas-y topic? Seems it might be. A dad was desperate to marry off his three darling daughters for whom he had no dowries to entice appropriate spouses.

In the liturgy for the Third Sunday of Advent, we hear the words of the Prophet Isaiah: Strengthen the hands that are feeble, Make firm the knees that are weak, Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not!

This reading from the liturgy of Monday, Dec. 5 (Isaiah 35: 1-10) is both comfort and challenge as we “wait in joyful hope” this Advent season.  Isaiah paints a picture of an arid steppe blooming with abundant flowers and the exiled Jewish people singing and rejoicing.

The Annunciation is an 1898 painting by the African American painter Henry Ossawa Tanner. It depicts the biblical scene of the Annunciation, where the archangel Gabriel visits Mary to announce that she will give birth to Jesus. The painting is held by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 

On Easter Sunday, we are gathered in contemplation of the risen Christ. We feel imbued with the same wonder as Mary Magdalen and the other women who went to Christ’s tomb on Easter morning and found it empty. That tomb became the womb of life.

Give thanks unto God for the grace He has provided for us, even when we don’t believe. Every morning He has awakened us, give thanks for His grace.

The woman central to today’s Gospel reading seems submissive, if not defeated. She had to feel embarrassed at best, clearly not hopeful of forgiveness. How befuddling that Jesus offers that very thing, forgiveness, without being asked. How long did it take her to realize that she was free to go?

The compassionate love of God in Christ is always ready to forgive sinners and welcome them home.  This is the challenging truth that Jesus proclaims to the tax collectors and sinners, and the Pharisees and scribes who were his audience.  Today we are Jesus’s Lenten audience.

Long, long ago when I was in college at Notre Dame of Maryland (now a university), we had a three-day silent retreat every year. I had never been silent for three days in my entire life. During those days I experienced God’s call to be a Mission Helper of the Sacred Heart. My reply to God was, “Here I am.” 

The readings of the Second Sunday of Lent are a like a roadmap, guiding us and grounding us in hope. At times we may feel like Abram in the first reading, unsure how things will unfold.

Overwhelmingly, the themes that strike me in this Sunday’s Mass readings are those of belief and faith. While closely intertwined, our beliefs are doctrine. Our faith is more intangible: a feeling, a relationship, our personal way in which doctrine colors our life experiences and how we view the world.