Advent Reflection: O Happy Fault!
We sat down as a family and reflected on Advent Stations found in the current copy of Magnificat Advent Companion. I’d love to paint a picture of a scene out of a Hallmark movie, but that’s not how things go...
Tagged: Jesus
The Paradoxical Jesus
In one scene from the iconic Pixar movie Cars, protagonist Lightning McQueen is being schooled by seasoned race car Doc Hudson. In this scene Doc tells him he needs to “turn right to go left.” Doc tells McQueen to drive...
Our Only Certainty is in Jesus
A reflection on the readings for May 7, 2023, the Fifth Sunday of Easter. An experience that Fr. John Kavanaugh, S.J., had with Saint Teresa of Calcutta can help us to reflect on our desire for clarity, and God’s invitation...
Forgetting God and the Consequences
Friends, I don’t know if you noticed, but we all walked into a bare Church. Silence greeted us. The altar is stripped of all its decorations. It is a skeletal altar that confronts us with the reality of death. God...
The God Who Abandons Us
“The God who is with us, is the God who abandons us.” These words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer are so ironic. The God who is with us, who stands in solidarity with our human realities of pain and suffering, is the...
The Sufferings of Jesus Were Many
On Saturday, April 1, Pope Francis was discharged from Gemelli University Hospital after recovering from bronchitis. Then, on Sunday, he gave a beautiful homily on Palm Sunday and the suffering of Jesus. Pope Francis said there were three types of...
Seeing the Perfect Christ in His Marred Body
When I was in high school, I spent a horrible week consumed by doubt that God is a good God. A trusted community member abused a child of a family that I cared about and this abuse caused deep and...
The Pharisees’ Woes, Humanity’s Woes
A reflection on the readings for February 13, 2022 — The Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time Today’s Gospel gives us Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, an analogue of the more famous equivalent or parallel passage in Matthew. Luke’s “take” on...
The God of Small Things
A reflection on the readings for the Fourth Sunday of Advent — December 19, 2021 (Click here for audio) The Beacons of Light initiative here in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati has been a needed but complex and challenging process. Speaking personally,...
Jesus Wants to Live His Life in Us
A reflection on the readings for Sunday, September 12, 2021 — The Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time There is a story from a little over fifty years ago, during the US civil rights era, in which one person told another how much...
Is it our job to divide?
Is division a necessary part of being a truth-telling Christian? Some Catholics, including clergy, point to Jesus’ statement in Luke 12 as a clear indication that divisiveness is part of our calling as Christians: Do you think that I have...
On the fundamental importance of the Bible
The sixth and final chapter of Dei Verbum is about how the Bible is actually used and its fundamental importance in the Church. The chapter begins by saying that listening to the Bible at Mass stands on par with receiving...
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