This has been a tumultuous week in America. January 6, 2021 will remain etched in the annals of American history as a day of shame and revulsion. Americans, and indeed the world, witnessed scenes of lawlessness and anarchy unprecedented in...
A reflection on the Sunday readings for January 3, 2021 — the Epiphany of the Lord Is your Christmas tree still up? Have you taken down your Christmas decorations yet? When I was a child back in India, our tradition was...
Each year at Christmas, I have a difficult time reconciling the hard realities that must have surrounded Jesus’ birth and how it has been romanticized over the centuries. The Annunciation, the Visitation, Joseph’s dilemma, Quirinius’s census, Mary and Joseph’s travel...
I want to begin my Christmas 2020 reflection with the first four stanzas of the poem Esperanza by Alexis Valdés, a Cuban-American poet based in Miami, Florida. When the storm passes and the roads are tamed, and we are the...
This is a reflection on the Mass readings of Sunday, December 20, 2020. Today’s readings present us with two stories. The first is the story of David, the second King of Israel. Through his extraordinary efforts, David had finally brought...
A reflection on the Sunday readings for December 6, 2020 — the Second Sunday of Advent Today, December 6, is the feast of St. Nicholas, who is of course known in popular culture as Santa Claus. Santa Claus is the iconic...
A reflection on the Sunday readings for November 29, 2020 — the First Sunday of Advent This is the first Advent we have observed during a pandemic and this will be our first pandemic Christmas. What if I told you that...
This has been a Thanksgiving like no other. A national holiday that we otherwise celebrate with abandon is being observed with utmost caution, restraint, devoid of large family gatherings, and perhaps, even alone. A pandemic Thanksgiving – it almost sounds...
The Christian story began amidst great turmoil: The passion, suffering, and crucifixion of Jesus; the continuing doubts, even after the Resurrection; the long and brutal persecution; and the dispersal of believers across the Roman Empire. This was the context of...
A reflection on the Sunday readings for November 15, 2020 The latest data tells us that the richest 1% own more than half of the world’s wealth. In the United States, top 20% of Americans own 86% of the country’s wealth...
A reflection on the Sunday readings for November 8, 2020 These are not the easiest days for us, both as a nation and as a world. We find ourselves caught up in the mayhem and turmoil of a political contest different...
A reflection on the Sunday readings for November 1, 2020 All Saints’ Day has a very long and interesting history. While the exact origin of this feast is unclear, historians believe that it began organically at the end of the Christian...
A reflection on the Sunday readings for October 25, 2020 When couples approach me for marriage preparation, they must complete a pre-nuptial inventory form. One part of the inventory concerns the couple’s “spiritual assessment.” Among the questions in this segment is...
Fratelli Tutti is a signature encyclical—not only of Francis’s papacy, but for the Catholic Church. During a pandemic, when the world seems to be at a political, social, religious, and ecological tipping point, comes a papal encyclical on “fraternity” and...
A reflection on the Mass readings for the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time. At my parish, I am currently leading an eight-week series on St. John of the Cross. John’s poems are all brilliant, but the ones that are the...
This reflection is written against the backdrop of the release of Pope Francis’s third encyclical, “Fratelli Tutti,“ on Oct 4, 2020, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi. The focus of this encyclical is “fraternity” and “social friendship.” In his...
A reflection on the Sunday readings for September 13, 2020 In the middle of the sixteenth Century, Sts. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila undertook a reform of monastic life. This led to no little discontent in the Carmelite...
A reflection on the Sunday readings for August 2, 2020 The multiplication of loaves and fish is the only miracle found in all four Gospels, and—surprisingly—twice in the gospels of Matthew and Mark. On the peripheral level, it can be...
A reflection on the Mass readings for Sunday, July 26, 2020. One of the dialogue lessons in my Spanish learning app is the story of a girl who, while looking around in the attic, accidentally discovers an antique lamp. As...
A reflection on the Mass readings for Sunday, July 12, 2020. If Jesus walked among us today, I wonder what parable he would preach? Amidst the pandemic, the social unrest, the racial inequalities, the dehumanization of the human person, the...
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