The Friar Podcasts - preaching prayer and spiritual reflections

In some ways, all Thomas wanted was the experience the other apostles had. He may have doubted in today's gospel, but he gave his life for Jesus. On Divine Mercy Sunday, and the day of the funeral for Pope Francis, we are reminded of mercy, love, hope. Readings for Today.Mercy, love, hopeI have a soft spot for Thomas. And I do in particular because of this gospel. You know, we have the expression "doubting Thomas." And really, when we look at the way in which things unfolded in the gospel, we see that Thomas simply wanted what the other apostles had already received.Proof that it was the same Jesus, the one they had followed, the one they had put their hope in. They wanted to know it was the same Jesus who was risen from the dead. And he was not settling a score. We might think that Jesus came back so that he could really then lay into the apostles for leaving him, abandoning him at his time of most need. But how often is it in these encounters that Jesus begins by saying, "Peace be with you." Peace. And Thomas believed once he had encountered Jesus, which is the same way that all of the other apostles came to believe as well. But I think this gospel is particularly important on this Divine Mercy Sunday because there are people who find it difficult, if not impossible, to believe that God loves them and that God can forgive them when they sin. There are people who carry around a toxic relationship with God, with themselves, and with others. But what we see in today's gospel is Jesus reminding the apostles that it is a relationship of love, that Jesus has overcome sin and death, and Jesus longs to forgive our sins, to call us into a new and more powerful relationship than we ever thought possible because of his love. Today, Jesus says to you, "Peace be with you." And he says to you, "I can forgive your sins. Seek my mercy. Seek my forgiveness. Know that I am not the God of the dead, but of the living, and I want you to live forever.On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

Sometimes things are not what they seem. Jesus and Nicodemus are speaking about being born. Peter is recognizing all his power comes from above. Just what is Jesus trying to teach Nicodemus about the word "from above." Readings for today. From AboveToday's gospel is one of those gospels that is easier to understand with a little background. Both Jesus and Nicodemus use the Greek word ἄνωθεν (anothen). And the word can have two meanings in Greek. It can be, as Jesus says, "from above", but Nicodemus could have understood its second meaning, "again."We see this word, anothen, used in other places, where the more common, "from above" is used. In the passion accounts, Matthew and Mark used the word to describe how the curtain in the temple is torn. While there are some translations that suggest "torn in two", it is more accurate to say that the curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom, or from above to below. But the word can also mean again. It can also mean something that starts at the beginning, or can be translated "top." So in using this word, whose meaning can be ambiguous, what is the point?First, it was a common teaching technique for Jewish rabbis to propose something impossible to make a point and to challenge a deeper understanding of a concept. So when Nicodemus suggests as an old man going back into his mother's womb, he knows this is impossible. In this example, Jesus is obviously trying to get at a new type of birth. It is not simply that we need to be born physically again, which is impossible. By translating this word "from above", there is an understanding that there is something spiritual in mind. Jesus goes on to talk about "spirit" and "flesh". And by setting out water and spirit as a condition for entering the Kingdom of God, there is a clear and direct reference that to be born "from above" it means to be baptized and to live the life of one who is baptized. Being baptized means that we take seriously the need to imitate Jesus in the way we live. And there are many times where it only makes sense for us to do this because we are born "from above."This life "from above" can be a difficult one at times, especially if we forget that to live "from above" means the constant awareness that we live out of our relationship with Jesus, and the need to be open to the Spirit.Moreover, we do not always know where the Spirit of God will lead us. Jesus tells us "The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." This life requires us to trust in God.And we know that to have such trust is not always easy. Peter realizes this in the first reading today. Peter's prayer is one of trust in God. "And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and enable your servants to speak your word with all boldness, as you stretch forth your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are done through the name of your holy servant Jesus."For in referencing a prayer of David, Peter recognizes that for many of the prophets, their lives did not end well. Often they were killed for preaching the very words that God told them to preach. But they did so because they recognized that to live "from above" meant trusting in God, who would deliver and save.This trust in God allowed Peter and the other apostles to speak the word of God with all boldness. They did not shy away from the demands of preaching, and they lived as those who like Jesus, were raised to a new way of life. Today, recognize that you too need to be born "from above" so that you may receive new life through water and the spirit, and live as one "born in the Holy Spirit."On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

From the US Bishops: Pope Francis Novena Day 3. This novena has been prepared to help pray for the Pope during the time of mourning. The daily novena – lasting for the novendiales period from April 26 to May 4, 2025 – consists of a short reading from Scripture or some other ecclesiastical text and some brief prayers, including orations drawn from the Roman Missal and the Order of Christian Funerals.The entire Church mourns the death of the Holy Father, Pope Francis. In cathedrals, basilicas, parish churches, shrines, and chapels the Holy Eucharist will be offered for the repose of his soul. Communities and individuals will ask God to bestow his infinite mercy on the man who served the Church as Bishop of Rome.When it is that we are not always certain what to do, turning to the Lord in prayer is a good thing. To be reminded of God's love for us, God's care for us. At the same time, as Pope Francis said in the response to the question, "Who is Jorge Bergoglio, he said: "I am a sinner."What this means is that an important part of who we are is our identity as believers. That we stand in need of a savior, who is able to forgive us for our sins. And so below is a novena, a prayer of nine days, or the novendiales, for Pope Francis. Each day of the novendiales we will feature a prayer, with a different theme of prayer for Pope Francis.Pope Francis Novena Day 3: The Unity of all the Church (April 28, 2025)In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.A reading from a sermon by Saint AugustineAs you are aware, Jesus chose his disciples before his Passion and called them Apostles; and among these almost everywhere Peter alone deserved to represent the entire Church. And because of that role which he alone had, he merited to hear the words: To you I shall give the keys of the Kingdom of heaven. For it was not one man who received the keys, but the entire Church considered as one… Rightly then did the Lord after his Resurrection entrust Peter with the feeding of his sheep. Yet he was not the only disciple to merit the feeding of the Lord’s sheep; but Christ in speaking only to one suggests the unity of all; and so he speaks to Peter, because Peter is first among the Apostles. (Sermo 295, nos. 2, 4)Pause for silent prayer.Pray one Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be.Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord.— And let perpetual light shine upon him.O God, who chose your servant Pope Francisfrom among your Priestsand endowed him with pontifical dignityin the apostolic priesthood,grant, we pray,that he may also be admitted to their company for ever.Through Christ our Lord. Amen.In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

From the US Bishops: Pope Francis Novena Day 2. This novena has been prepared to help pray for the Pope during the time of mourning. The daily novena – lasting for the novendiales period from April 26 to May 4, 2025 – consists of a short reading from Scripture or some other ecclesiastical text and some brief prayers, including orations drawn from the Roman Missal and the Order of Christian Funerals.The entire Church mourns the death of the Holy Father, Pope Francis. In cathedrals, basilicas, parish churches, shrines, and chapels the Holy Eucharist will be offered for the repose of his soul. Communities and individuals will ask God to bestow his infinite mercy on the man who served the Church as Bishop of Rome.When it is that we are not always certain what to do, turning to the Lord in prayer is a good thing. To be reminded of God's love for us, God's care for us. At the same time, as Pope Francis said in the response to the question, "Who is Jorge Bergoglio, he said: "I am a sinner."What this means is that an important part of who we are is our identity as believers. That we stand in need of a savior, who is able to forgive us for our sins. And so below is a novena, a prayer of nine days, or the novendiales, for Pope Francis. Each day of the novendiales we will feature a prayer, with a different theme of prayer for Pope Francis.In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.A reading from the holy Gospel according to JohnJesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" Simon Peter answered him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs." He then said to Simon Peter a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Simon Peter answered him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Tend my sheep." Jesus said to him a third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was distressed that Jesus had said to him a third time, "Do you love me?" and he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep." (21:15-17)Pause for silent prayer.Pray one Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be.Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord.— And let perpetual light shine upon him.O God, immortal shepherd of souls,look on your people’s prayersand grant that your servant Pope Francis,who presided over your Church in charity,may, with the flock entrusted to his care,receive from your mercythe reward of a faithful steward.Through Christ our Lord. Amen.On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

From the US Bishops: Pope Francis Novena Day 1. This novena has been prepared to help pray for the Pope during the time of mourning. The daily novena – lasting for the novendiales period from April 26 to May 4, 2025 – consists of a short reading from Scripture or some other ecclesiastical text and some brief prayers, including orations drawn from the Roman Missal and the Order of Christian Funerals.The entire Church mourns the death of the Holy Father, Pope Francis. In cathedrals, basilicas, parish churches, shrines, and chapels the Holy Eucharist will be offered for the repose of his soul. Communities and individuals will ask God to bestow his infinite mercy on the man who served the Church as Bishop of Rome.When it is that we are not always certain what to do, turning to the Lord in prayer is a good thing. To be reminded of God's love for us, God's care for us. At the same time, as Pope Francis said in the response to the question, "Who is Jorge Bergoglio, he said: "I am a sinner."What this means is that an important part of who we are is our identity as believers. That we stand in need of a savior, who is able to forgive us for our sins. And so below is a novena, a prayer of nine days, or the novendiales, for Pope Francis. Each day of the novendiales we will feature a prayer, with a different theme of prayer for Pope Francis.In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.A reading from the holy Gospel according to MatthewWhen Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (16:13-19)Pause for silent prayer.Pray one Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be.Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord.— And let perpetual light shine upon him.O God, faithful rewarder of souls,grant that your departed servant Pope Francis,whom you made successor of Peterand shepherd of your Church,may happily enjoy for ever in your presence in heaventhe mysteries of your grace and compassion,which he faithfully ministered on earth.Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Jewish leaders wrote off Peter and John because they did not seem very smart. They were, as the reading tells us, uneducated, ordinary men. There's hope for us. Readings for today.Uneducated, Ordinary MenOne definition of humility is to accept oneself as they are. As humility comes from the root word for earth, we could say that being humble is about being down to earth. Keeping your feet on the ground. Knowing who you are.And yet, there can be a real temptation to be more than. we are. To think of ourselves as better than others, smarter, more attractive, richer. And if we cannot describe ourselves in this way, we can become resentful or envious.But what if the best definition of humility, or the best way to live it, is to simply try to see ourselves as God sees us. And when we consider how God sees us, we can see ourselves as beloved sons and daughters of God. With the gifts and talents that God has given us, to do those things that God wants us to do.Let's consider the lives of Peter and John. It seems that they knew who they were. Likely from an early age they knew they would be fishermen. More than likely they came from a family of fishermen. Casting nets, catching fish, making a living.And this would have been a very good life. To be hard workers, to be able to support yourself and a family was something to be proud of in life. This would have made them quite productive members of society. But this was not what either of them would become. Everything changed when they met Jesus. Suddenly, and over time as well, things changed. Their encounters with Jesus changed them from fishermen to fishers of men. They went from charting their own course in life to following Jesus wherever that led.But perhaps most of all they went from ordinary to extraordinary. Despite their faults and failings, they recognized that they needed to know how Jesus saw them. And so they became humble. Think of Peter. He knew he was a sinful man. He knew only Jesus could heal him and forgive him.Peter was compulsive, impetuous, shoot first, aim second kind of man. At his worst he could not even admit he knew Jesus. At his best, he would give his life for Jesus. And Jesus saw in Peter what Peter could not see in himself. And John, thought to be the beloved disciple, was amazing too. His mother thought that he and his brother James were the most important and should sit at the right and left hand of Jesus. But Jesus saw John differently. He saw John as the one who could love much. And he did.And Jesus saw in John someone who would care for Mary, the mother of Jesus, as carefully and lovingly as Jesus cared for her. Jesus sees in John the one who gives us an example of how it is we should see Mary in our lives.In today's first reading, we see two contrasting visions of Peter and John. The Jewish leaders saw, ordinary, uneducated men. But Peter and John knew who they really were. They were disciples of Jesus. They were followers of Jesus. And they were the ones, because of their faith and trust in Jesus, they were the ones who became extraordinary men of wisdom.It can be the case that we reward those in school who are smart. The know a lot of facts. But in life, we tend to reward those who are wise. And wisdom is about seeing things the way that God see things. And that describes Peter and John.Does it describe us? Is it the case that we too allow ourselves to be loved by God so that God can make us who it is we really are? Too many settle for ordinary. But the truth is that God wants to make us extraordinary. And so seek a relationship with Jesus. It will make all of the difference.On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

Both the first reading and the gospel are stories with incredible events. A healed man, and a resurrected Jesus. How wonderful is your name, O Lord. Readings for Today.How wonderful is your nameIncredible. How often do we use this word? And how often is it that we use it without really consider the weight of the word? Often we use the word to describe something that is, in fact, credible. But difficult.You should have heard what my boss said to me today. Incredible. Can you believe what happened? Incredible. But often these events are credible. We have no difficulty believing that they could happen, it is often that the word describes for us that something surprising happened.But the events today, both in the first reading and in the gospel, are in fact, incredible. Hard to believe. And the implication of what is at stake through these events is hard to believe as well. Just what is at stake in the gospel and in the first reading?In the gospel, the apostles are still coming to terms with the fact that Jesus, whose crucifixion they witnessed, whose death they saw, is now alive. Maybe it is the case that he is a ghost. Maybe they are hallucinating. There has been a lot of stress, after all.But Jesus does things to demonstrate that in fact, he is the same Jesus they came to love and to follow. He is still fully human. He eats fish. And they realize that he is indeed truly risen! Incredible!By the time the events of the gospel unfold, Peter and John are doing amazing things. In the power of Jesus name, a crippled man is able to walk. Yesterday we saw this. So excited was he that not only was he walking around, he was jumping! Who can blame him?The purpose of celebrating the octave is not just to recall historical events. While they are important, and wonderful, the octave of Easter, and the entire Easter season are about the implications of this resurrection for each one of us. In fact, every aspect of our lives and of our faith are tied to this event.For Jesus comes to each one of us just as he came to the apostles. The risen Jesus wants to prove to us that he is indeed risen! He wants us to believe and to know that the new life of Jesus is possible for us to receive too.And, Jesus wants to act through us just as he acted through Peter and John. While we might not ever find ourselves healing a cripple, like Peter and John we can find ourselves being vehicles of God's grace. The Holy Spirit can work through us as well.Of course a question arises. Do we really believe Jesus can give us new life? How often did Jesus ask, "Do you believe I can do this?" or make the statement after a miracle that "Your faith has saved you"? I think during this Easter Octave Jesus continues to ask this question of us. Do we believe that Jesus can give you new life? Do you believe the power of the resurrection can be yours in faith? Do you believe the Holy Spirit can work through you, so that you can witness to others the power of Jesus in your name? Do you believe that God can do incredible and powerful things through you?For it can be the case that the resurrection of Jesus has become so familiar to us that we take it for granted. or we relegate it to the past as an event that does not impact us today. But this misses the point. While the historical fact of Jesus' resurrection occurred in the past, the impact of this event is outside of time. This incredible event is as powerful today as ever.So maybe today in prayer you can ask Jesus to help you to fully appreciate his resurrection and what it means in your life. Maybe you can ask Jesus to help you to be even more aware of the ways he wants to work through you. Maybe, just maybe, because of the power of the resurrection, the depth of his love, and his actions in the world, you too can do incredible things in his name.You can listen to our homilies. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

Both readings refer to the importance of being able to recognize the role of faith. In the first reading, Peter and John do not have money, but Jesus. In the gospel the explanations of the scriptures do not make sense until the breaking of the bread. Readings for Today.I just started to wear progressive lenses. They are bifocals, but they do not have the line that separates the lenses. While they take a little getting used to, the adjustment has not been all that much. And I appreciate being able to see things more clearly. Even though they are not that powerful, I can recognize much more now than before. Sometimes we use the expression "the eyes of faith" to describe a type of seeing that is not limited to the physical world. It is the case that with the "eyes of faith" we are able to see a person's dignity that may not be obvious to us with physical senses.This is part of the challenge of the debate in our present age over immigration. Some see physically that migrants and refugees are only visible in ways that cause some to focus only on themselves. They see migrants and refugees as threats, criminals, less than human.But with the eyes of faith, Catholics view refugees and migrants as Christ, and as such have a high view of what we should do to help them. Failing to help migrants and refugees is failing to help Christ himself.The difference between the two ways of seeing is whether or not we can recognize Jesus. In today's gospel, the two disciples cannot recognize Jesus. They can appreciate the knowledge of the one they walk with, but they cannot see his as the preacher in whom they put their hopes.How can it be that someone they knew well enough to follow they could not recognize when they hear him explain so much of the scriptures? How is it that their physical senses could not recognize Jesus? How is it that they could only recognize Jesus with the eyes of faith?To truly see Jesus, they needed to encounter liturgy. They needed to be at Mass. And in this is a great and important lesson for each one of us today. Where is it we truly recognize Jesus? It is when we go to Mass and Jesus becomes present in the Eucharist.Only then, with the eyes of our faith are we able to see Jesus clearly. In the breaking of the bread, the disciples on the road to Emmaus were able to see Jesus. Despite the burning hearts they experienced when Jesus explained the scriptures, they only recognized him in the breaking of bread.We live in a time where some people simply cannot see with the eyes of faith. It is as if they are blind. They cannot see the action of God, the presence of Jesus, the movement of the Holy Spirit.And yet the lesson of the gospel is that Jesus can heal this blindness, just as he did for Bartimaeus, or the man born blind, or the disciples in today's gospel. Just as Jesus does for physical sight, Jesus also does for those times when faith sight is blind and we cannot recognize Jesus.Can you recognize Jesus in your life? Can you see Jesus in the events of your life? Do you sit with Jesus in the breaking of the bread? Can you recognize Jesus in the poor, the homeless, the migrant and the refugee?The blindness in the eyes of faith can be healed by Jesus. He longs to do this. He wants to do this. He wants you to see that you can be forgiven of your sins, healed of your brokenness, invited into a powerful and infinite relationship with Jesus.On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

As was the case yesterday, Mary Magdalene and Peter are both featured in today's readings. Their emotions are a lot to process. But Peter is changed. Not only does he claim to know Jesus, but he says Jesus is both Lord and Christ. Readings for today.Both Lord and ChristIn many ways, this week is a series of persons. Peter. John. Mary Magdalene. The disciples on the road to Emmaus. And others. So many types of persons are featured. The beauty is that we see so many different reactions to Jesus. And it helps us to consider our own reaction to Jesus.Today we get the experience of Mary Magdalene before the encounters of the Risen Christ. The gospels provide a description of Mary Magdalene that seems to suggest, that in her life she does everything wholeheartedly. Nothing is done halfway.So consider her devastation. Jesus was the one that freed her from demons, from an awful way of life, and turned everything right side up for her. She was lost but was found by Jesus. And now, this Jesus in whom she believed so deeply, is dead. Hopes are dashed. How will she go on?And yet she does go on. She peers into the tomb. Maybe she looked to make sure that Jesus was really gone. It seems like a situation where a person would not really believe that a body had been stolen. First Jesus is dead, and now his body is stolen. How could things get any worse?But like everything else this week, there is a surprise. When she looks into the tomb this time, she sees two angels. Angels. She simply asks for the body of Jesus. Where have they taken him? Behind her is the risen Jesus. He must have looked different, for she does not recognize him right away. But of course. She knew Jesus had died. She witnessed his crucifixion. There is no way that she could expect to see Jesus. After all, she was not crazy.And yet, there is Jesus. How does Mary Magdalene come to recognize him? The same way we all come to recognize Jesus. Mary knows him when Jesus calls her by name. And this is an important part of the encounters with the resurrected Jesus. Encounter.Because these stories are not just about a resuscitated Jesus. Nor are they seen as some type of scientific freak occurrence. These stories are about an encounter. How the encounter with Jesus changes the lives of those who see him.And that is what Jesus wants for us too. It is not just that Jesus wants us to know about him. Jesus wants us to know him. All of him. Jesus wants us to see the encounters that are possible because of faith. We can come to know Jesus in his life. He wants us to see ourselves as like those in the gospels that see the events, hear the teachings, experience him. He wants us to see ourselves in the encounter of the passion. And he wants us to experience the depths of his love for us.And in the resurrection, Jesus longs for us to see how he can bring new life to us. How it is that Jesus can change us. How it is that when we encounter him, we can see what we could be. And when Jesus give us the grace to see what we could be, we see it is pretty wonderful indeed.On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

There is a lot going on when we feel two conflicting emotions at the same time. We can cry and laugh at the same time. Be fearful yet overjoyed. The resurrection of Jesus produces many feelings. Readings for Today.Fearful, yet overjoyedIt really is hard to imagine what types of feelings are present in the two readings we hear today. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary knew Jesus had died. They witnessed his crucifixion. They prepared his body for burial. How could they have seen him now alive?Peter was so afraid at the death of Jesus he denied even knowing him. And yet in today's first reading he is proclaiming not only that he knows him, but more than that. "God raised this Jesus; of this we are all witnesses." How can this be?It can often be the case that we find ourselves in a world that does not believe in the truly miraculous. Sure, we use the term miracle. But referencing a miraculous comeback in sports, or calling something a miracle only because it turned out so well, these things are not miracles.But someone rising from the dead? How can that be? As the prophet Isaiah asks, "Who would believe what we have heard?" And for Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, the question is this: "Who would believe what we have seen?"The accounts of the resurrection of Jesus were seen as nonsense by the apostles. And who could blame them? Who of us, mourning the loss of a loved one, would accept easily an account by someone who loved the deceased that they have now seen him? Would we not think that perhaps this was a psychological problem?But the women know what they have experienced. They do what the Risen Christ tells them to do. And the others have similar experiences of the Risen Christ and come to believe that he is truly risen.And consider Peter. He couldn't admit to even knowing Jesus. Even after encountering the Risen Christ, Peter hides with the other apostles in fear. And yet, Jesus fulfills his promises. He sends the promised Advocate, and Peter is so changed he can now preached boldly before others. Does the resurrection change you? Have you thought about the question? Have you considered how your faith impacts your life? Do you live any differently because of what Jesus has done for you? How the Holy Spirit has come into your life?We live in a world it can be difficult to see the presence of God. And yet we have been celebrating these past few days, the Easter Triduum and Easter, the outstanding truth that God cares so much for us. God forgives sins. Heals brokenness. Does the miraculous.And God does this for you. God wants to do more for you. God wants you to know how much it is that he loves you. How much it is that he wants to do miraculous things in your life, just as he did for the apostles. Look for God. Seek God. Search for those ways to discover that God is active in your life. Ask God for the grace that you too might feel fearful yet overjoyed.On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update. And we have restarted our podcasts after a hiatus. You can subscribe to our podcasts on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

We live in a time of new life. While it may not feel that way to all, the Church is growing, the Spirit is moving, and Jesus is still offering his new life. Readings for Today.Something wonderful is happening hereIf you have been paying attention, you might have noticed that religion is making a small comeback. All over the world the number of people coming into the Catholic Church has been remarkable. The National Catholic Register reported that the Diocese of Cleveland “expects 812 converts at Eastertime 2025, which is about 50% higher than in 2024 (542) and about 75% higher than in 2023 (465). It’s so high that the diocese had to move its Rite of Election — during which prospective converts meet with the bishop near the beginning of Lent to declare their intention to join the Church — to the city’s Public Auditorium and Conference Center, because the cathedral wasn’t big enough to accommodate the nearly 3,000 attendants, including converts, sponsors, family and friends, according to Nancy Fishburn, the diocese’s executive director of communications.”The same article reports that there is a 56% increase in the Texas diocese of San Angelo. The Diocese of Winona-Rochester has a 67% increase in those entering the Church, and the numbers there are almost double what they were in 2022. “In 2023, in a parish in a town of 12,000 people, St. John’s welcomed 32 adult converts, followed by 27 in 2024. This year the total number is 38: 30 adults and eight children.” The article reports that dioceses in all parts of the United States are seeing increases. And it is not just the United States. According to the French bishops, 10,384 adults will be baptized this year on Easter night, and more than 7,400 teenagers aged 11 to 17. This brings the total number of catechumens receiving baptism in France this year to over 17,800, an increase of 45% for adults compared to 2024. Of these 42% of these are 18-25 year olds. Similar stories are reported in Canada, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Mongolia, the Netherlands and Spain among others. And here at Saint Dominic Parish in Denver, we are seeing similar trends. The New York Times features a columnist who wrote about her former life as a quite active Mormon. She left the Mormon faith, not for another religion but for a more secular life. And yet she feels something is missing. She writes this: “Actively religious people tend to report they are happier than people who don’t practice religion. Religious Americans are healthier, too. They are significantly less likely to be depressed or to die by suicide, alcoholism, cancer, cardiovascular illness or other causes. In a long-term study, doctors at Harvard found that women who attended religious services once a week were 33 percent less likely to die prematurely than women who never attended.”It seems that many are discovering what we already know. Jesus brings life. Our faith is not one where we only share the positive elements. Our Messiah, the Divine Son of God was crucified and killed. The first leaders of the Church do not hide their failures, but speak clearly about how they denied him, betrayed him, ran away at his hour of need and doubted him.But they spoke clearly about how their lives were changed. They went from frightened mice to bold martyrs. A small band of believers became a Church that now boasts over 1 billion members.And while there are many reasons for this, it cannot be denied that there is an increasing recognition of the action of God in people’s lives. There is, to quote Saint Paul, a greater likelihood these days that people “seek what is above.” They realize that just allowing the Holy Spirit into our souls produces unbelievable spiritual growth.Consider the example of yeast and dough. If you are like me, you might not even think about yeast. But yeast is tiny. And yet when added to dough the result produces exponential growth.  “A little yeast leavens all the dough.” Read more . . .

Far from a defeat, the Cross is the triumph from which the Church is born. Lejos de ser una derrota, la Cruz es el triunfo del que nace la Iglesia. Readings for Today. Lecturas para hoy.The Triumph of the Cross / El triunfo de la CruzThe passion account in the Gospel of John is different from the passion accounts in the other four gospels. As J Alan Culpepper writes, “There is (1) no mockery of Jesus at the cross; (2) no penitent thief; (3) no darkness, even though John often plays with the symbolism of light and darkness; (4) no counting of the hours (except for the comment in 19:14 that it was the sixth hour), though John has spoken repeatedly of the coming of Jesus' hour; (5) no rending of the veil, though John tells of the cleansing of the Temple at the beginning of Jesus' ministry; (6) no cry of dereliction; (7) no earthquake; (8) no opening of the tombs, though John has spoken earlier of the opening of the tombs and records the raising of Lazarus; and (9) no confession of the centurion, though John places particular emphasis throughout the Gospel on the recognition of Jesus as 'the Son of God.'”Why is this? For John, the point of the telling of the story is to highlight the Cross not as a defeat, but as a triumph. The death of Jesus on the cross is “a humiliation that is followed by an exaltation but as the first step in Jesus' exaltation and glorification. The resurrection is compressed into the crucifixion so that the two are stages in one upward motion. The death is itself an integral part of Jesus' exaltation and glorification- which of course is completed in the resurrection.”En el relato de la pasión de Juan, las acciones de Jesús y hacia Jesús sirven para dejar clara una cuestión importante. Jesús no es sólo un predicador itinerante. Juan relata los acontecimientos de la pasión de Jesús para demostrar que Jesús es el Hijo de Dios. Y utiliza las imágenes de las Escrituras como telón de fondo de sus argumentos.Durante la Pascua, se sacrificaban miles de corderos. Pero uno era para el Sumo Sacerdote, cuatro días antes de la Pascua. Esto habría ocurrido cuando Jesús hizo su entrada triunfal en Jerusalén. El cordero confiado llevado al matadero.Juan nos dice que Jesús es el Cordero Pascual. Jesús, con total confianza en el Padre, es él mismo llevado al matadero. Jesús es el Cordero de la Gran Fiesta. Jesús, el Cordero de Dios, cambia deliberadamente el significado de la Pascua haciendo referencia a sí mismo. Comed mi cuerpo. Bebed mi sangre.Jesús muere el Día de la Preparación, cuando los corderos se preparan para el sacrificio. Y como la puesta de sol en esta época del año en Jerusalén es justo después de las siete, la matanza de los Corderos habría ocurrido a media tarde.While the sign hung above the head of Jesus says he is the King of the Jews (a seeming admission by Pilate that he did not believe Jesus to be guilty), that the sign is written in the three common languages of the area indicates that the death of Jesus is for the Jews, but not just for the Jews. All are saved by the death of Jesus. Again from Culpepper. “John's interpretation of the tradition highlights elements that have ecclesiological significance, and this reinterpretation of the tradition reflects a fundamental theological insight: The Church is founded not just on the resurrection of Jesus- it has its origin at the cross. What happened at the cross, therefore, shapes for all time the nature and design of the Church.”Con todo el sacrificio de los corderos, el Templo se habría llenado de sangre. Por eso, para limpiar el Templo antes de la puesta del sol, cuando no podían trabajar, a menudo arrojaban grandes cubos de agua, que salían por unos agujeros en el lateral del Templo.Read more . . .Seguir leyendo . . .

My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? The cry of dereliction. Just what did it mean for Jesus? And what does it mean for us? Readings for today. My God, My God, Why have you abandoned me?On the Cross, Jesus quotes the first line from Psalm 22. "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" These words of Jesus, often referred to as the "Cry of Dereliction", have been the subject of much interpretation and analysis over the centuries. (One of my Dominican brothers, who just received his doctorate in sacred theology wrote on this very topic.)Given that most of us will never explore the Cry of Dereliction in such depth or insight, what can we gain from these words? They are one of the seven last words of Christ, another motif that has been preached about for some time.Perhaps for this Good Friday, the words of Psalm 22 offer a good basis for reflection on this Good Friday. The start of the Psalm represents the psalmist in a bad place. The psalmist is abandoned and alone. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?Why so far from my call for help,from my cries of anguish?My God, I call by day, but you do not answer;by night, but I have no relief.To be sure, things seem bad. Not only are things not going well, but God, who has always been present, loving and supportive, no longer seems to be that way. The psalmist feels abandoned, distant from God, full of anguish. And God is silent.And yet, the psalmist still has faith. For God is "enthroned as the Holy One". God has not only been the source of trust for those in the past, but God has been trustworthy. The ancestors cried out and God heard. They escaped from their enemies. Despite this faith, the way the psalmist looks upon themselves, not only do they feel the absence and silence of God, but at the same time they are conscious of their lowly state. But I am a worm, not a man,scorned by men, despised by the people.All who see me mock me;they curl their lips and jeer;they shake their heads at me:“He relied on the LORD—let him deliver him;if he loves him, let him rescue him.”The psalmist feels abandoned in their weakness. They know who they are, especially as compared to God. But they are also surrounded by enemies, and so their abandonment is more complete. Not only do they have enemies, they have enemies who mock precisely because the psalmist trusted in God.The words of the psalm are echoed in the accounts of the passion. It does not take much imagination, especially in the gospels that are so familiar to us to hear those around Jesus as he hung upon the Cross speak this way about Jesus.But the end of the psalm moves from the despair at the beginning and the long account of just how bad things are, it moves from here to faith. And this is the pattern we see during this Holy Week, and now into the Easter Triduum.After the Last Supper, which we commemorated last night, Jesus prays for this cup of suffering to be taken away from him. But only if it be the Father's will. If it be the Father's will that Jesus make the total abandonment to that will, Jesus will do it. Some scholars claim (even early Church theologians) that the Cry of Dereliction came when Jesus felt the enormity of all of the sins of humanity. But what if the explanation is simpler, even though the implications would be profound.Consider that the ultimate cause of death of crucifixion was suffocation. So it would be logical to assume that Jesus had some difficulty in speaking. What if he was praying Psalm 22 in its entirety, but only had the strength to say the first line?And so Jesus, who in his human suffering feels not only abandonment, but also feels alone (his followers have abandoned him), but is being jeered by the crowds and mocked for his faith in God the Father. What if, then, the Cry of Dereliction represents the total self-gift of Jesus for our sins? Rather than being abandoned, Jesus has completed the work of the Father he was sent to do.Read more . . .

Do this in remembrance of me. This means that the events of the Eucharist, Good Friday, and Easter are not simple recollections, but an invitation to enter more fully into the divine actions of Christ. Readings for Today.Do this in remembrance of meMemory is an amazing faculty. Memory allows us to time travel, making the past into the present. Memory invokes all kinds of wonderful feelings. Memory can even bring the dead back to life, at least in our minds.But there is a special type of "memory" that we engage in when we go to Mass. When we talk about the remembrance at Mass, we do not mean memory like remembering what we had for dinner the night before. The type of remembrance we mean is anamnesis. In an article by David Ramsey, published in Religion and Literature, we read some interesting observations about the word anamnesis, and about the words from the second reading today by Saint Paul.Ramsey points out that when Saint Paul says, "Do this in remembrance of me", he is not simply referring to memory as a function of the brain. There is something much deeper. Let's consider each part. The verb "do" is poieö." "When used in connection with human activity, the verb poieö is the sense of making, manufacturing or producing something." (Ramsey, 2017, 83.) The result is that this is not to be a passive function of the intellect, but rather an active entering into something much greater. What Saint Paul reminds us of are the words of Jesus. Do this in remembrance of me. This word remembrance, is the word anamnesis. Anamnesis is "an event or experience of the past that is brought actually and effectively into the present." (Ramsey, p. 83) So the anamnesis at Mass is not simply a recollection of the past, but an entering into an event in the present. So rather than the Reformation objection that calling Mass a sacrifice meant killing Jesus over and over again, the Mass is a time where we are entering in an engaging way the one sacrifice of Christ. The once for all sacrifice is made present again. This is what it is meant to do when we are told by Jesus to "do this in remembrance of me."But there is more. What we are engaging in is the Divine Liturgy in heaven. What is meant by anamnesis "is that the 'action' of the earthly church in the eucharist only manifests within time the eternal act of Christ as the heavenly High-priest at the altar before the throne ofGod, perpetually pleading his accomplished and effectual sacrifice." (Ramsey, p. 83)This is sometimes expressed in the phrase that Mass is the meeting of heaven and earth. This is made more clear in the sense of the theology of the eastern Church, where there is a clear iconostasis, or wall that represents the division of heaven and earth. There are words and actions not visible to the faithful, because the cleric, acting in the person of Christ is standing before the Father in heaven.And so what we celebrate tonight is our entrance into heaven here on earth. And to actually be able to enter, the gospel reminds us that at the heart of the heavenly and earthly encounter is the absolute recognition of the inherent human dignity every human being shares.The washing of the feet then is an action for the leaders of the Church. The leadership Jesus envisions in his Church is one of service. We are not to lord over our leadership with brutal authority, but to show forth in our actions, attitudes and beliefs the need to serve. This is the sense the Jewish people have when they celebrate the Passover. Mass is not simply saying the right words. It is entering into, over and over again throughout the Mass into a series of actions. Not only do we hear words of text when the readings are proclaimed. God's word is made real to us again.The actions of Jesus, particularly at the Last Supper stand outside of time. The death of Jesus on the Cross stands outside of time. And Mass is when we enter into these events that stand outside of time, in eternity.Read more . . .

The oils for use over the next year are blessed by the bishop at the Chrism Mass. The bishop blesses the oils used at Baptism, Confirmation, Ordination, in the Anointing of the Sick. The oils signify strength, healing and consecration.Readings for the Chrism Mass.Strength, Healing, ConsecrationModern culture is familiar with oil. Whether it is at the gas station filling up our car or making the engine run smoothly, or the ingredient in ointments that heal us from rashes, cuts and scrapes.In a religious usage, oil goes back a long way. When Israel entered the promised land, one of the signs of abundance was the plentiful crop of olive trees. But olives took long to prepare for eating, so much of its use was for other things. Olive oil was valuable and was used to anoint kings, to light lamps, to sacrifice and to heal.Oil was also in the Bible a sign of abundance and wealth. Being anointed set one aside to be king or as a priest. Oil was also used to designate objects and buildings for special purposes. In the Catholic Church, oil signifies strength, healing and consecration. In baptism it is the Oil of Catechumens that is used to provide the strength that will be needed for the one who is baptized. Moreover the Sacred Chrism is also used in Baptism and again at Confirmation, so that the ones who are baptized are both strengthened to provide witness and anointed because they are set apart, or consecrated, for a special purpose.The Oil of the Sick is obviously for healing. In so many things we use today for healing, oil forms a solid basis. But the Oil of the Sick is also about strength. Being sick, especially serious sickness, is not easy to face. It changes the way we see everything. Just as we use oil for physical healing, we also use it as a sign of the spiritual healing that only God can give.The Sacred Chrism is different than the other types of oil. It is closely connected to consecration, which means to be set apart for a special purpose. At baptism, we use Sacred Chrism as a sign of consecration. We consecrate churches. We consecrate people at the baptisms, confirmations, and when they are ordained.The Oil of the Catechumens and the Oil of the Sick are made from olive oil. The Sacred Chrism is also olive oil, but a perfume of balsam is added, signifying that this oil is set apart for consecration.It is the oils that are blessed by the bishop that will be used by those coming into the Church at the Easter Vigil Mass on Saturday. And so it is appropriate, if possible, for those receiving the sacraments of initiation to see the Chrism Mass if possible.But it is important for all of us if possible as well. The connection for each one of us to the oil used at our own baptism and the oil blessed each year by the bishop is a great reminder of the great blessing God has given us in the sacraments.The Sacred Chrism we see should serve as a reminder that at our baptism and confirmation, we were set apart for a specific purpose. And if you are blessed to have people coming into the Church at the Easter Vigil, they serve as a reminder that each of the baptized, all of us, must hear the command of Jesus to go forth, teach and baptize.And this responsibility arises from our baptism. For our baptism is connected to our salvation, and it is our baptism that obligates each one of us to share the Good News that Jesus came to bring.The readings used at the Chrism Mass are powerful as well. Consider this section from the prophet Isaiah which we hear in the first reading.Read more. . .

The deed is done. Judas goes through with the betrayal of Jesus. How many times did he stop to think about what he was doing? How many times was he even a little unsure? Readings for Today. The deed is doneTwo persons. Two different goals. Only one ending leads to life. Both Jesus and Judas have deeds to do today. For Judas, the deed has to do with betrayal. For Jesus, the deed leads to life.For Judas, the deed begins with a question. While not in these words, Judas wants to know what is in it for him. He wants to know what he will get for betraying Jesus, handing him over. Despite all he has seen, all he has witnessed, in the end, Judas' question is about himself, and what he will get.For Jesus, the announcement about betrayal brings great distress from the disciples. They have seen the same things as Judas. They have had their lives changed. All but one. By the point of the Passover, Judas has gotten the answer the the question, "What's in it for me?"Too bad Judas didn't direct his question to Jesus. In Matthew 19:27, Peter asks just this question. "Then Peter said to him in reply, “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?” In Luke 18:28 Peter says, “We have given up our possessions and followed you.” Saint Mark recounts the same question of Saint Peter to Jesus.But there is a big difference in the two questions. Judas' is asking not a question of faith, but one of selfishness. He is not asking about what he gets because of his relationship with Jesus. No, he is asking what he gets in this life, here and now.And to whom we direct our questions makes a big difference too. Will we seek answers from the world? Or will we turn to Jesus to ask our questions, and to receive his answers? For the focus of the questions determines the quality of the answers.Questions asked of the world have a limited time frame. The are only for the here and now. Questions asked of the Christ have an eternal timeframe. They are not just about the here and now but about the here and hereafter.Unfortunately the question Judas does ask Jesus has an answer that is not satisfying. What did the other apostles think of Jesus' reply to Judas? Were they confused? Were they able to figure out the meaning of this answer of Jesus to Judas' question?And even after Judas regrets his actions, seeks to give back the money, he simply cannot bring himself to ask Jesus for forgiveness. For while Peter did not hand Jesus over, he did not stand up for him either. He couldn't admit to even knowing Jesus, let alone to stand up for him.But whereas Judas despaired, Peter wept bitterly. But he did not despair of what Jesus could do for him. He may not have been there at first when Jesus needed him, he also was able to face Jesus and to seek the ways in which Jesus could forgive him and renew him.Judas is only known as the betrayer. But despite the three denials by Peter, he is known as an apostle. He is known as the pope. He is known as a martyr. Most importantly, he is known as a saint. How is it you will be known?On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

Each of us probably has a dream, or had one. But was our dream inspired by Christ, or someone else? Judas may have thought he was living out a dream, but it was not for Christ but for himself. Readings for Today.What's your dream?Why did I do it?What did it get me?Scrapbooks full of me in the background.Give 'em love and what does it get ya?What does it get ya?One quick look as each of 'em leaves you.All your life and what does it get ya?Thanks a lot and out with the garbage,They take bows and you're battin' zero.Today's readings brought to mind for me the musical Gypsy. It was the first Broadway show I had seen. And even though Tyne Daley (Cagney and Lacey) was scheduled to perform, Mama Rose was played by Linda Lavin (Alice).The lyrics above come near the end of the show. Things have not turned out the way Mama Rose thought. She had a dream, but it was never for her. It had been always for someone else. And things did not turn out so well.The lyrics come after her daughter, now Gypsy Rose Lee, has become a stripper, much to her mother's disappointment. But it was her mother who put her in this position. And so when Mama Rose expresses her disappointment, and asks, "Why did I do it?", Gypsy Rose sadly answers, "I thought you did it for me, mama."This answer sends Mama Rose into a reflection, the result of which is this song. She begins to realize that as the ultimate stage mother, in a time where Vaudeville is dying, what she thought she was doing for others, she was actually doing for herself.If we are not people of prayer, reflection and discernment it can be the case that our dream becomes our own, and not the one God intends for us. This is what happens for Judas. Somewhere he went from being a disciple, that is, following Jesus, to being the one who wanted Jesus to follow him.In yesterday's reflection we discussed a little as to how this might happen. Not usually all at once, but little by little, often until we are able to do more than we could possibly imagine ourselves ever doing. For that is the way that sin works. It is insidious, creeping more and more into our lives unless we seek God's grace. How do we do this? By staying close to the sacraments. Frequent confessions, regular attendance at Mass. By praying, recognizing how it is that God is present in our lives.Because the message of this week is the outstanding desire of Jesus that we be saved. Jesus longs to see us turn to him. Jesus longs to extend to us his mercy and forgiveness. Jesus wants us to experience his powerful love for each one of us.Today Judas leaves the meal, the meal where Jesus gives the great gift of himself in the Eucharist. It is not simply a Passover meal, for Jesus changes the meal, he fulfills the meal. This is my body. This is my blood.During Holy Week, there is a reminder that now is the time to turn to Jesus. Now is the time to seek his forgiveness and mercy. Now is the time to pursue Jesus' dream for our lives.On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

There are times when people protest something because their sin hits a little too close to home. Judas is now at the point where his greed has caused him to be unable to understand the works of Jesus. Can it be the same with us? Readings for today.Thou dost protest too muchThere can be times when our selfishness rises to a level so high, that when what we want becomes threatened, we react badly. We get mad, stubborn and unreasonable. We appear self-righteous and seek to make bold moral pronouncements to hide our own selfishness.We see this very clearly in the actions of Judas. While he appears to be concerned for the poor, by this time his heart is set too deeply on greed. This is particularly sad when we consider that it was often the most trusted member of the community that kept the purse.When was it that Judas began to change? Maybe it was the first time he kept a little back for himself. It did not seem like much at first, but over time this desire for more became too strong. He started with a little, but had to have a lot.Maybe it was the case that he wanted Jesus to act faster, to do more, to be the type of Messiah that was expected. The military leader, the man of action. Why didn't Jesus act more like Judas wanted him to act?Maybe it was the question about why Jesus could do such dramatic healing, but couldn't get rid of the Romans. Maybe there was brokenness in the family of Judas that Jesus seemed not to pay any attention of healing or fixing.Whatever it was, it became the case that Judas lost his way. And rather than allow himself to be found by Jesus, reclaimed by God, Judas decided it was all too much. If Jesus wasn't going to take action, then Judas would take matters into his own hands. Isn't this how it works with sin? First, tempted a little bit. We give in. We fail to see how it is Jesus can help. We sin a little more. At some point, we decide not to seek out the help or the grace of Jesus. We can actually find ourselves fighting against Jesus himself.But Jesus is the powerful Son of God. Using Saint John's timeline in the gospel, it could be the case that Jesus stops in Bethany to eat with Martha, Mary and Lazarus just before his triumphal entry into Jerusalem which we heard yesterday.Despite the protests of Judas, Jesus remains the servant of God. Isaiah describes the servant who is the just one. Despite the suffering, this servant is supported by God, upheld by God, loved by God.Of course it is the case that Jesus never stopped loving Judas. Jesus continued to do all he could to offer the pathway of forgiveness, the pathway back to Jesus. At any point Judas could have turned to Jesus, confessed his sins, and been healed. But when sin becomes too deep, it is all the more difficult to see our way out of it. Despite the necessary outpouring of God's grace, we refuse to see. In the legal profession, there is a concept called willful blindness, where an organization or a person simply turns a blind eye to harm. They should have seen it, but they choose not to see it.More than anything, this week is our chance to allow Jesus to open our eyes to our sin. It is our chance to end the charade, turn away from sin, and ask Jesus for a stronger relationship with him. This is the time! This is the day of salvation! Don't wait a minute more. Come back to Jesus.On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

his whole week, starting today, is about Jesus as the Pascal Lamb who brings salvation to the entire world. We are asked to enter into living and experiencing these great events of faith. Through them all, we ask Jesus to remember us and taking us to paradise. Readings for Today.Jesus is the Pascal LambIs it estimated that during Passover, in the time of Christ, thousands of lambs were slaughtered so that the pilgrims who came to Jerusalem could in fact celebrate Passover in Jerusalem. This was a lifelong goal of every devout Jew. The Passover Seder even ends with the toast, “Next year in Jerusalem.”And so in the Temple during the week we call holy, there was much slaughtering of lambs. But there was one specific lamb to be slaughtered. The one for the High Priest. This lamb was slaughtered four days before Passover.Think of this timeline. If the Last Supper is on a Thursday, the preparation of the Lamb four days before would be on a Sunday. And before the resurrection of Jesus, Sunday is the first workday of the week.So think of the symbolic importance of the timeline. The lamb of Passover is called the Paschal Lamb, based upon the word Pesach (PAY-SOCK), the word used for Passover.It is not unfamiliar to many Christians to hear of Jesus as the Paschal (Passover) Lamb. The lamb of the high priest prepared four days before, mirrors Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which we celebrated with today’s first gospel.But very quickly things switch. As Holy Week progresses, we will see that the scene gets darker and darker for Jesus, leading to his death on Good Friday.The parallels between Jesus as the Lamb of God and Passover are striking. The move of Jesus from triumphal entry to passion and death is reminiscent of Isaiah 53:7, where the lamb is led trustingly to slaughter. Jesus, with total trust in the Father, is himself led to slaughter. Jesus is the Lamb for the Great Feast. Jesus, the Lamb of God, deliberately changes the meaning of Passover by making the reference to himself. Eat my body. Drink my blood.And since on Good Friday, since we always hear the passion according to John, it is important to note that Jesus dies on Preparation Day when the lambs are prepared for the slaughter. Just as the lambs are slaughtered for Passover, the Paschal feast, Jesus too is slaughtered for Passover. But there is more. I looked up the time for sunset in Jerusalem, and it is just after 7 pm. Why is that important? Because Jewish holidays start at sundown. In order to be prepared, and to clean the Temple, it would likely have started at mid-afternoon.With all of the slaughtering of the lambs, the Temple would have been filled with blood. So, to clean the Temple before sundown, when they could not work, they often threw big buckets of water, which flowed out of holes in the side of the Temple.So blood and water flows out the sides of the Temple. Blood and water flows from the sides of Christ. John’s point is clear. While the original Passover celebrates the liberation of the Jews from Egypt, the New Passover, the Lamb of God, celebrates our ultimate freedom from sin and death.And so the point of the readings we read and the stories we hear is the focus on Jesus. He is the major focus of these stories, and this week is the only week we hear the details in the gospels of his death.We celebrate what the gentle Lamb of God means for us. We witness the gentle Lamb’s complete surrender to the Father, and his total self-gift to us.In the other persons in the readings we hear this week, we see ourselves. For we can be as fickle as the crowds who cheered Jesus on Sunday, and sought is death on Friday.We recognize that without the grace of God, we too can take matters into our own hands. Taking control, like Judas, only to make things terribly worse.We see that like Peter, we too can find it hard to stand up for Jesus. We can lose our courage, even pretending with do not know Jesus. . .Read more...

Hope and pessimism. The prophet Ezekiel proclaims a great promise from God, that the division and brokenness between the two kingdoms will cease. And the writing is on the wall for Jesus. Readings for Today.Hope and pessimismAt first glance, the first reading might seem a little out of place. The Lord speaks a great promise for Israel and Judah. They will again be one kingdom. The division that has been experienced will end.The imagery Ezekiel uses is quite optimistic. The Lord will do great things. The sins, the abominations, the evil will be no more. The divided land will be united under God's servant King David. All will be well.If this sounds a little familiar to us today it is because it really is a foreshadowing of the Messiah, the ultimate king of the world. And this ultimate king is not King David, but his descendent, Jesus.And so, we finish out this week with a beautiful reminder of what Lent is all about. And we finish out this week with a reminder of just what will happen to Jesus. But this is not to make us sad, but to rejoice!It is not that the ultimate hope is about politics. No, the ultimate hope is our salvation. And so what might be seen as pessimism in the gospel becomes pointed to the great and hopeful promise of God for each one of us. It is an interesting exercise to hear the words of the first reading as if the Lord is speaking directly to us. So let's alter the first reading a little bit. Consider that God is not speaking to an entire people, but to you. Here is the edited text.No longer shall they (you) defile themselves with their (your) idols, their (your) abominations, and all their (your)transgressions. I will deliver them (you) from all their (your) sins of apostasy, and cleanse them (you) so that they (you)may be my people and I may be their (your) God.For this is the promise of God for each one of us. That we will no longer be ruled by our sins, our idols, our abominations and transgressions. The suffering of Christ is for nothing less than our salvation. All that he endures for us, as painful and difficult as it is, has no other purpose but to save us. The negative aspects of our sins has brought us to this moment. We fail, and we, through our sinful failures are the reason we need a savior. And even more powerful is that the suffering Christ is to spare us from the judgement that could condemn us for all eternity.Because of the works of Jesus, the people are coming to believe. And that is a problem. There are a few reasons the Christ was killed. But today we see in the Jewish leaders the fear that the civil world could collapse. The Romans could take away everything.If we think of the crucifixion, the cross, from the perspective or the view that we must do this so that our nation does not collapse, we see a different perspective than we might have focused on before. The Jewish leaders are concerned that the Romans will take away the privileges they have to practice their faith. But in reality, without realizing it, they have traded away their loyalty to God for loyalty to the comfortable. We can be tempted to do the same thing. Where do our loyalties lie? With our political leaders or with God? With this political party, or with God? Do we worship money, or do we worship God? Do we want to sacrifice what we will stand for so as not to rock the boat?On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

Cue the dramatic music. Jeremiah feels the heat all around him. Jesus faces an angry crowd with rocks. How do you face persecution? Readings for today.Cue the beginning of the dramatic musicIt is pretty remarkable to see. If you have ever seen an innocent video clip played with different background music, you can see how much music influences what is going on and how you feel. And the scenes in the readings today certainly call for dramatic, suspenseful music.In some ways, Jeremiah should have been ready for what occurs, since this reaction has been the story of his entire life. Called to be a prophet at a time when he was concerned about being too young, and throughout his life, Jeremiah has struggled. How much? Well, there is the time that he describes trying not to be a prophet, only to have the words of God well up in him like a spring. Yet despite his fidelity, Jeremiah never sees to convince many people of God's message.But does this mean he is not successful? Perhaps. But the goal of the spiritual life is not success. It is fidelity. Fidelity to God and his message. Fidelity to acting from that relationship with God to love God more and to love our neighbor more. And if success is defined by what the world expects, Jeremiah was not successful.But if success is measured by God's standards, he was quite successful. Because by all accounts he did what God wanted until the very end. And he remained loyal to the people who rejected him because of God's will.In the gospel, Jesus faces an angry crowd with rocks. They were going to kill them. As an aside, this gospel, with Jewish leaders with rocks, demonstrates something quite important to keep in mind. The Romans played a heavy part in the killing of Jesus, since Jesus was executed by crucifixion and not stoned with rocks.The charge against Jesus was blasphemy. But it is based upon a faulty understanding of blasphemy. The Jewish people were not told they could never say the name of Yahweh. They were told they could not blaspheme the name of Yahweh.We see and hear many today who do in fact blaspheme. The name of Jesus is often used in a way that is not respectful to the power of the Holy Name. Even by Christians! But of course if we speak the truth about God, use God's name in prayer, appreciate its saving and holy power, that is not blasphemy.But Jesus always speaks the truth. About himself. About his Father. About the Holy Spirit. And about us. It is Jesus who is speaking the truth about things. And perhaps most importantly, Jesus speaks the truth about us too. We are loved. We are loved more than we can ever understand. But we have to accept this relationship with Jesus. We have to agree to love Jesus and to love our neighbor. We have to agree to acknowledge our sinfulness, and to turn away from this sinfulness. What is interesting about the whole thing is that Jesus is raising our dignity. When we turn away from sin, we become who we are. Jesus is making us more human. Jesus is making us better. Infinitely better if we accept his salvation."If I do not perform my Father's works, do not believe me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father."Jesus provides for us, in the works he does, the proof for his testimony. We can be sure of Jesus' love for us. We can be certain his invitation is true. We can be sure, that despite all of the brokenness in the world, we can, by his grace, be saved. On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

Quite successful. Quite sad. Abraham had great highs in life, and some real lows too. But through it all, he kept his faith in God, who makes a covenant with him. And Jesus is the fulfillment.Abraham had a very, shall we say, circuitous life. An early period of his life, or much of his life, where he became quite successful, financially and really probably in prestige. So financially successful that it got to the point where his herds and flocks were so large that they were getting in the way of lots herds and flocks, his relative. On the other hand, for much of his life, there was a sadness in Abraham. He had no children. And especially in that culture, that would have been seen as a terrible disgrace. But somehow God had not blessed Abraham. Today, we get the result of Abraham's life. His gratitude for his success and the removal of his disgrace. Through it all, Abraham was a man of faith. Whether it was in the good things that happened in his life and the blessings, where he was grateful to God for all that he had received, or in the challenges and his ability to pray. And today, his faith comes to its natural conclusion for him. This great promise that he who had been disgraced was in fact going to have descendants more numerous than the stars. That from Abraham's covenant is going to be the first kind of vision of what God has in store. I should say the second. Jesus, of course, is the fulfillment of that vision. Unlike Noah, David, Moses, Abraham, Jesus is not one more covenant in a long list of covenants. Jesus is the covenant. He is both the covenant maker and the covenant itself. But, just as Abraham had moments where he was challenged, the biggest challenge in Jesus' day was that he was not like what they expected. How often can we miss the presence of God because we expect something else? We don't see it clearly. And Jesus has a hard time explaining who he is, and it's not accepted. There's great challenge. In many ways, this week has been the week of accusations. We had Susanna, we had Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And in these Gospels, we've really had Jesus being accused of not being authentic by what he is saying. What do we look for in the covenant of God? What do we expect during this season of Lent? Where do we look for God? As we are on the end of Lent and the beginning of Holy Week, how do we need to sharpen our vision to see the ways in which God is present? Today, let us redouble our efforts through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to understand more fully and to see more clearly the Lord Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of the promises of God.On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

When I hear about the stories of the great saints, I often have a hard time believing that I could do those things, even with God's grace. Being cast into a white hot furnace? Facing people who are determined to kill me?The three young men who King Nebuchadnezzar wanted to kill have consistently in the Book of Daniel shown their absolute trust in God. From not wanting to be made to eat food given to them that would violate the Law, to today's dramatic scene where even being thrown into a white hot furnace that even killed the men throwing them into the furnace, even this did not harm them.Why? Because they trusted completely in God. Consider the absolute power of faith in their attitude, and in their actions. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego throw themselves completely upon God and God's mercy. Consider their powerful statement of faith."There is no need for us to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If our God, whom we serve, can save us from the white-hot furnace and from your hands, O king, may he save us! But even if he will not, know, O king, that we will not serve your god or worship the golden statue that you set up."Wow! Their faith is so strong that even if things do not turn out in such a way that they do not need to die, even then they love God so much they can accept whatever happens. And it has to be the case that this powerful witness and complete trust caused King Nebuchadnezzar to praise the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.And in today's gospel, Jesus is continuing to try to help those who want to kill him to see who he clearly is. We heard yesterday that what would seem to be the height of Jesus' failure is indeed the moment of his triumph. "When you lift up the Son of Man,then you will realize that I AM."And when we know this truth we can become truly free. Free from our sins, those actions that enslave us. And we can know this not because we are smart enough to figure this out on our own, but because Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. And when we surrender to the Truth that is Jesus, we know a freedom that is greater than anything we could imagine.What we have to understand is that this will not always occur in the way we imagine it. We might think that if we follow God everything will work out wonderfully. But the total trust of the three young men in the first readings is only surpassed by the full trust of Jesus at Gethsemane. Jesus works so hard to help those who wanted to kill him to realize that he wasn't the scandalous Messiah, the one who would be killed, but rather the fulfillment of all the promises made to the prophets. He is the very fulfillment of the Law they think they are trying to uphold.This Lent ideally is a time where through our prayer, fasting and almsgiving we become able to accept God's grace more fully. This grace enables us to give our lives completely to God because our total self-gift of faith to God is only possible because of God's grace. And so if we are ever asked, "Is it true you will only worship Jesus Christ?" let us be sure to say yes because we can accept God's grace to do so.On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

Don't ComplainI have a friend who loves the Song of Bernadette. His favorite part of the movie is when Bernadette is sick, and the doctor asked, "Did she ever complain?" He wants me to be the one who says, when he dies, "Did he ever complain?" That is so the doctor can give the answer about him that he gave to Bernadette.The family asks why the doctor asks, and he says, "Because the pain must have been excruciating." I tell him I will ask, "Did he ever complain?" But my answer will be one of emphasis. Not as a question, but as a statement. "Did he evercomplain." Truth be told, however, I complain. I try not to do it often, and I think I have gotten a little better, but still I complain. And I often wonder why. Why is it that when things don't go well I am prone to complain. I bet Moses asked why the people complained so often as well. After all, he has led the Hebrew people from slavery in the desert, has been the vehicle for God's great and miraculous acts, and still the people complain.I know for me my complaining comes from a lack of patience. I want things to happen my way, and quickly. Ironically, I also try to sit in silent prayer waiting on God. Go figure. I know God is infinite, but I am still tempted to think I know better.If you have never been in a desert, you might not realize the wide variety of extremes. It can be blistering hot during the day, but quite frigid at night. That is because the sand reflects the heat back during the day, and because it does not absorb the heat, has nothing to reflect back to at night.So on one level, it can be easy to see why the people complained. We forget they were bringing with them into the desert their entire livelihood. They had their families to be sure, but also their livestock.Still, "with their patience worn out by the journey" they reached a breaking point. The problem is that they turn their focus away from God, and turn it to only seeing themselves. As a result, the journey brings about in them a lack of patience, leading to anger, and grumbling at both Moses and God.And when they turn away from God, they forget all he has done for them. They want to go back to Egypt, but they really didn't like it there either. They hold on to the past. They forget and lose sight of the hope of the promised land given them by God.Don't we do the same with sin sometimes? Aren't there times when we would rather hold onto our sinfulness, failing to keep our focus on God and the hope he offers us. And when we turn all of our attention inward, we take the perceived good of our sinfulness over the hope we need to have in faith. This is what the season of Lent is all about. We are to leave behind those things that enslave us (like how Egypt was a place of slavery), and accept the new life God offers us. During Lent, through prayer, fasting and almsgiving, we turn away from sin, to become more faithful to the gospel.On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

The story of Susanna in the first readings is a compelling story that tells us that things are not always as they seem. And sometimes life can get pretty dark. But Jesus is the Light of the world. Readings for Today.Hopefully at Mass today you heard the long form of the daily Mass reading. Even though it is quite long, the story is captivating. A woman is almost killed because people believed the lie about her. Daniel's faithfulness reminds us that God is never outdone if faithfulness.So much of the story follows a familiar pattern. First, Susanna's husband, Joakim is a very upright man, very well off and deeply respected. In marrying Susanna, Joakim marries a woman who was raised in a good family, and follows the Law of Moses. In the Old Testament, the type of wealth enjoyed by Joakim and his wife Susanna was a sign of God's blessings. Another example of this is the story of Job who was also very upright, yet experienced great suffering. Such will be the case in this story as well. The experiences recounted serve as a reminder that material wealth is not the sign of righteousness and fidelity. For wealth alone does not guarantee freedom from bad events in life. Susanna will certainly soon discover this. Unfortunately not everyone in the world is just and upright. In come those who will create the conflict in the story. Two nameless judges (political leaders) give into their base natures. And they believe in their lust that that can or should have Susanna because they want to have her.But such is not the way. Most of us learned as little kids that we could not always have what we wanted simply because we wanted it. Our parents used a word with us that was not always popular. Sometimes they said "no."And this was good for us. It taught us, as I used to say to my students, "The earth revolves around the sun, it does not revolve around you." And to become mature adults we needed to learn this. But in the life of faith, recognizing the primacy of God and his grace to help us live the way he wishes us to live is even more important. Because it is more essential that we pay careful attention to what type of person God wants us to be. In fact, that is the key aspect of Lent. Lent is not so much about what we do, but who we become.The two lustful judges serve as a good reminder as to what happens when we do not look to God to help us to resist temptation. "They suppressed their consciences; they would not allow their eyes to look to heaven, and did not keep in mind just judgments."Isn't this the case? Little by little in sin we can convince ourselves that bad is good and good is bad. In their failure to form and to listen to their consciences, they ultimately risk not only their physical safety, but far more importantly they risk losing their spiritual safety.In treating Susanna as an object, the two men lose their way. In a bad way. Susanna is victimized. We don't know the reaction of her husband, but this had to be something quite difficult to face. And the sadness of her family adds to the problem. But Susanna outlines us a good way to make a decision. “I am completely trapped,” Susanna groaned. “If I yield, it will be my death; if I refuse, I cannot escape your power. Yet it is better for me to fall into your power without guilt than to sin before the Lord.”It can be easy to fall under the spell of those in power. This is what the people did. But God stirs the heart of young Daniel. And through him we learn that God is dependable and trustworthy. Even though it may not appear so at the time, our real hope is in heaven, and that gift comes to us through God's gracious and most generous grace.God saves those who hope in him. Let us, today, pray that we may trust in God's salvation, and become the persons he wants us to be.On the friar, you can listen to our homilies and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

Looking ahead. The readings for this week heighten the fact that Jesus is heading toward his death. Here is a preview of what we will focus on with the daily Mass readings.Looking AheadIn a simple summary, this week is about those who have been accused. But it is even more than that. It is about those who have been accused of something they did not do. Imagine how difficult a place that must be for those accused.We live in a culture that loves to accuse. It is almost the case that we seem to revel in the failings of others. Ironically, we also are a culture that tends to make excuses for the failings of those people who are famous, that we like, or that do things that our like our own failings.The theme is easy to understand, as we enter the last week before Holy Week. And if one theme this week is the accused, the second, and more important theme is the constant presence of God reaching out to save us.Monday, April 7. Susanna is falsely accused, the people assume her guilt, and Daniel, as a faithful servant of God shows the truth.Today's first reading is one of those that, despite its length, should be heard in the long form. The story is powerful. The scene dramatic. There is suspense, and the demonstration of faithful commitment to God. It serves as a reminder to us of the faithfulness of God.Tuesday, April 8. Complaining when the path of God is difficult.If I were Moses, I would have certainly had it by now. How many great deeds can be worked by God through him? And how can all these deeds be done without the people understanding the power of God and the faithful leadership of Moses?And yet, in my own life, I can see that I simply fail to trust God, despite all I have witnessed, and all I know about the faith. Lord, help me to believe. Increase my faith.Wednesday, April 9. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are falsely accused, brutally tortured, and saved by God.King Nebuchadnezzar was not a nice guy. In fact he was mean, unkind, vindictive, and evil. He did not like to be defied. Yet time and again Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego show forth the power of the God of Israel.Thursday, April 10. Abraham is the man of faith, a man of the covenant, the covenant that leads to Jesus.Dionne Warwick sang a song called Promises, Promises. The title could be a summary of today's readings. The promise made to Abraham is the focus of the first reading. And the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham is the focus of the gospel.Friday, April 11. Jeremiah is denounced for doing the works of God and speaking his message.Poor Jeremiah. He is a prophet who does exactly what God wants, speaks his message most clearly, and his "reward" is his rejection by the very people he was trying to save. It is not hard, then, to see the parallels between Jeremiah and Jesus.Saturday, April 12. What should we do?This is the question of the Pharisees. What should we do? But it is not a question that arises from faith, but rather one that arises from the attempt to escape faith. How often do we focus on what we should do. The prophet Ezekiel in the first reading reminds us the question is always about what God will do.On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

The Law is clear. “If a man commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.” (Lev. 20:10) “If a man is discovered lying with a woman who is married to another, they both shall die, the man who was lying with the woman as well as the woman.” (Deut. 22:22)And yet, Jesus himself does not participate in stoning the woman, or more accurately imposing the death penalty. In fact it seems it could be said that Jesus remains far removed from the whole scene.This passage is one of the most well-known stories in the gospels. From ancient times until now this story of Jesus has been written about extensively. And according to Gail Day, basically three interpretations about the text have emerged over the centuries. The first comes from the Reformer John Calvin. Calvin interprets the story as having Jesus reject the entire Jewish Law, since with faith in Christ we would naturally do what is right. No need for morals or Law per se, because we would almost spontaneously do what is right.The second comes from Saint Augustine, who emphasizes the wisdom of Jesus in neither condemning the woman nor ignoring her sin. Saint Augustine’s position is this: “You have heard then, Let the law be fulfilled, let the adulteress be stoned. But is it by punishing her that the law is to be fulfilled by those that ought to be punished?”In his view, the important aspect of the story is the conversation that Jesus has with the woman. He neither condemns her nor does he excuse the sin.And this encounter between the woman and Jesus is powerful indeed. Rather than being forced into being too harsh or too gentle, Jesus threads the needle. “Hence, either let this woman go, or together with her receive ye the penalty of the law. Had He said, Let not the adulteress be stoned, He would be proved unjust: had He said, Let her be stoned, He would not appear gentle: let Him say what it became Him to say, both the gentle and the just, Whoever is without sin of you, let him first cast a stone at her.”The action of Jesus is powerful. It is, according to Saint Augustine the voice of Justice. He writes, “This certainly is the voice of justice: by which justice, those men pierced through as if by a dart, looking into themselves and finding themselves guilty, one after another all withdrew.”And so, this important lesson we can draw from the text is that we need to be most careful in judging others. It is often the case that when we judge others, we are seeking to avoid judging ourselves. In this way we seek to minimize our sinfulness. But neither Calvin nor Saint Augustine focus on the conversation with the scribes and the Pharisees. There are really two conversations of Jesus in this gospel: the conversation first with the scribes and the Pharisees and the conversation with the woman.Both are challenged to a new way of life without sin. In helping the scribes and the Pharisees to see their own sinfulness, they are calling them to conversion. But telling the woman not to sin again, Jesus is calling her to lasting conversion.For both comes the encouragement to a life of true freedom. This is the point that Saint Paul makes. The Law only can lead to recognizing sin. Faith in Jesus leads to the true freedom of salvation, a gift we can embrace even now.Read more . . .

Have you ever been in an argument and just cannot accept you are wrong? Despite an increasing amount of evidence, you won't give in. Will you give Jesus the opportunity to change your heart? Even if doing so causes you to change the way you see the world?. Readings for Today.Just cannot accept itIt is not always unusual to become involved in an argument that is petty where we continue to argue knowing two things. First, it is not always important. Second, we know that it doesn't matter, because the most important thing is winning.Despite the works of Jesus, the miraculous cures, the Pharisees simply cannot open their hearts even a little. The just cannot accept that Jesus is the Messiah. To be sure, Jesus is presenting a challenging message. He is providing a new focus of God's presence in life.We live in a time where we see so many people insisting on their being right that we can understand the Pharisees. We dismiss each other. We insult people who are opposed to our views. At our worst, we might even seek to destroy the other person so that they can no longer bother us.We see this in the Pharisees with Jesus. We also see this in the first reading in the life of Jeremiah, the prophet who speaks the truth but faces a lot of opposition. We can become stubborn with people like Jeremiah and Jesus because they tell us what we do not want to hear.Why do we do this? I think behind this inside this attitude is insecurity. We do not want to accept the complexity of the world. We do not want to be challenged. We don't like change, because often it can produce anxiety.The heart of the spiritual life is the recognition that we are not God. We have to seek to see that in the world, we need to submit to Jesus, not because we are afraid of God's power, but rather because we know God's love for us is unconditional.Sometimes our life of faith can be simply checking boxes. The Pharisees were often doing this, not because they are bad people, but rather because they saw in the Law the need to follow it perfectly.But checking boxes, be it with prayer, or good deeds is not enough. It is not the primary goal. The primary goal is to engage in prayer because we love to be in God's presence. We do good deeds because in doing them for others, we see that we are serving Jesus in what we do.Will you give Jesus the opportunity to change your heart? Even if doing so causes you to change the way you see the world? The gospel shows us that one hangup for the Pharisees is that they think Jesus is from Galilee, since he grew up in Nazareth. This belief about Galilee prevents them from seeing anything else. In today's world there can be similar blind spots that keep us from seeing what it is that Jesus is doing. We can struggle with recognizing that faith is an important component to knowledge. Some can only accept reason alone. St. Thomas Aquinas thought that theology was faith seeking understanding. It can be the case for some that reason can be thing very thing that leads a person to accept the faith. But it seems that once we accept Jesus in faith, we see reason as the faculty that enables us to accept those things we simply cannot prove using only our reason.In the end, the season of Lent is about our trying to imitate Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. Not my will, but your will be done.

Readings for Today. This is an interesting conversation that we get between Moses and God. It, in some ways, could be seen, perhaps, as a conversation between equals. God has finally seen how stiff-necked the people are. God wants to destroy the people, but it's Moses who intervenes to prevent this destruction. So what's going on? It certainly cannot be the case that God did not know before this statement that the people were stiff-necked. It certainly cannot be the case that God changed His mind, and at one time thought about bringing the people to the Promised Land, and at the next minute changed His mind and wanted to destroy them all. So what's happening? I think God is like a good parent. He's helping Moses to believe. He's helping Moses to see clearly who God is, by letting Moses really stand in defense of the people. It's not that God is going to destroy them. In fact, He's going to help Moses to be the type of leader that is necessary to carry out God's plan. We know that just as God threatened to destroy the people, Moses comes down from the mountain pretty angry. And we can understand why. The people have not listened. They've turned away from the way that God wanted them to follow. I think in a lot of ways, what the people wanted was something tangible. Moses was delayed from coming down the mountain. We know that these encounters that Moses had with God changed him, and it caused the people to be somewhat afraid. And so, when he's delayed in coming down the mountain, they begin to question, "Well, maybe he's gone. Maybe he's not still around." They're afraid of God. They won't even go to the base of the mountain, because they're afraid. And we can understand it. I mean, God is God. He's infinite. He's all-loving. He's all-good, all-knowing. They wanted something they could see and touch. But that's not faith. Faith is about a relationship. Faith is about believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is about recognizing that even when we don't understand, we admit that God is God and we are not. We live in an age, I think, where too often we want to do things our own way. We want to be in charge. We want to be in control. If we can't see God, then it must mean that God does not exist. We are going to trust those things where there are tangible proofs that things are the way they should be. I remember when I was in the seminary, there was a seminary classmate, my ordination classmate, in fact. We had the option of doing a group project. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I hate group projects. I've said before that even as a teacher I assigned them, but as a student I hated them. I didn't like to rely on someone else. And so when he asked if I would consider doing a group project with him, at first I said no. But he was persistent and I said, "Okay. Here are some ground rules that we need if this is going to be successful and I'm not going to go to jail for homicide. First, you know that you and I have different ways of meeting deadlines. I always meet deadlines, but they're closer to the due date. You'd like to meet the deadline by finishing the project yesterday. I do not work under pressure, that kind of pressure, very well. It does not bring out the best in me." But I agreed. And our friendship survived. Although there were moments I wasn't sure it was going to. Now I mention this example because aren't we sometimes like that with God too? Not wanting to do a group project with God. We want to do what we want to do. We want to know with certitude how things are going to work out. We want to do our own thing in our own way. But Lent is not about that. It's about fine-tuning our desire to please God. Fine-tuning our desire to accept God through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. We belong to the ultimate group project, the church. And God will never abandon this church. And so let us ask the Lord what the disciples asked the Lord. Lord, increase our faith.

Readings for Today. Listen to our other podcasts. Who can you count on? I have to say that I'm not terribly excited about the next five months. That's how far away we are from the election. Because it's not going to be pretty, it's going to be ugly, we're going to yell at each other, we're going to be angry, we're going to be frustrated. All of those things are going to happen. It's interesting that in life we tend to look for someone on this earth to save us, sometimes even from ourselves. We want someone who's going to take care of everything for us and make things better and good and right. But the first reading today tells us something very important, that it matters to whom we look for salvation. It matters. And Peter is trying in the first reading to remind people about the fidelity of God even when we are not faithful. That we have to be aware that God is always with us, always loves us, and is always faithful, even when we are not. And this great insight comes from the quote that's made from the book of Deuteronomy, the great Shema of Israel. The most important thing, it's what they actually put on a piece of paper or whatever and put it on an article of jewelry and wore it around their foreheads or on their wrist or, and it was on the doorposts of their home. Their whole lives were supposed to be ordered around these two great commandments. The Lord our God is Lord alone and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Of course, saying those two commandments, touching them, thinking about them is one thing. Doing them, on the other hand, can sometimes be quite another. It's not always easy to love God, especially if we're concerned that God might ask something of us that we do not want to do. Moreover, it can be easy, as Jesus tells us in the gospel, to love those who love us. But the real test of loving our neighbor is to love those who are not terribly easy to love. Jesus then rewards this scribe in the gospel for an insight. He asks what the two greatest commandments are. And the answer he's given recognizes a deeper insight that loving God and loving neighbor is worth more than any number of sacrifices. Now today, our sacrifice is, in fact, priceless. It's not like the Old Testament where they sacrificed the blood of bulls and goats and lambs. Our sacrifice is the Lord himself. It is Jesus Christ, the one who died for our sins so that we could live forever. If we're looking to attach ourselves to anyone, let us make sure that that person is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

Readings for Today. Listen to our other podcasts. Today Jesus tells us the truth about marriage, and from this comes the Church's teaching on annulments. The Teaching on Annulment From this gospel and also a parallel passage in the Gospel of Matthew, we get a glimpse into the Church's understanding of marriage. And the difference is not insignificant. In civil law, marriage is considered a contract. Both parties, in fact, say, "You do this and I'll do that," and so forth. But in the Catholic Church, marriage is a covenant. A contract is 50/50. A marriage is 100/100. You can't hold back in your gift to another person. It's a complete and total self-gift. This gospel also helps us to understand something that I would suspect that most Catholics don't understand, and that is the topic of annulments. But there are certain instances where the Church can declare that the necessary components to enter into this covenant were not present. It's not a divorce. It's rather a statement that says the essential elements of a marriage were not present. Hence, there was no marriage. Now, what are those essential elements? Pope John Paul II wrote Canon 1095. It's actually the one--it's seared into my mind because it's the canon on consent. What makes consent? And why does it matter? It matters because consent makes marriage. In order for there to be consent, there are three components that need to be present. One, I need to know what I'm consenting to. It can't be something where it's a complete and total surprise to me who, in fact, I'm marrying. I have to know what I'm consenting to, and I have to know in that consent that, in fact, marriage is for a lifetime and requires fidelity. Secondly, one has to be free. If one is at the altar getting ready to be married because there is a person in the congregation that will shoot them if they don't get married, well, that wouldn't be free. Now, of course, that's an extreme example, but there are a number of things that could limit my ability to be free. For example, I'll pick something that was probably more true years ago but not as true today-- a young girl who becomes pregnant, and her father says, "You have to marry that guy." Okay, that's not necessarily freedom. She's not freely choosing to do that, and there are a number of other factors that can impact freedom. Lastly, one has to have the ability to consent. So, for example, we don't hold a 3-year-old to the same level of ability to make a choice as we would a 23-year-old. One has to have the ability. One has to be mentally competent. One has to be able to actually give consent. And again, there are a number of factors that could impact one's ability to do so. This lack of consent can be temporary or permanent, depending on the situation, but the important thing to note is that it is a way of keeping faithful to what Jesus says in today's Gospel. It is a declaration, not a breaking of the contract. That's what divorce is, and for those who have gone through the painful experience of divorce, the notion of it being a contract is pretty well understood, because you get lawyers in the room, and you say, "Okay, well, this is going to be this way and that way, and both parties have to agree to what it will take to break up the marriage, to break the contract." Most importantly, the first reading tells us in whatever commitments we've made, we have to be able to say yes to God and no to sin, and we have to ask God for the grace of perseverance. On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

Readings for Today. Listen to our other podcasts. Standing up for God Those who gave Saint Paul a challenge and beat him thought they were preserving their right in Rome to worship as Jews. This first reading needs a little bit of context in order for us to understand it, I think. So, the Jewish people had worked out kind of a deal with the Romans so that they could worship their god while everyone else in the Roman Empire worshipped the emperor who was a god. So, there were many among the Jewish people that worked very hard and very zealously to guard this agreement. The fear that is being portrayed here is that if it is seen that the Jewish people are not living up to their bargain, but in fact accepting Jesus as the Messiah, that this could unravel the whole freedom that the Jewish people enjoyed to worship the one god. And so, that's part of the context behind this and it would seem that that is also the reason why this case is being tried in Roman courts. The Roman judge does not in any way want to get in the middle of this. He is not going to make decisions on matters of Jewish religion, which is how he sees it. Simply a conflict among the Jewish people, nothing more. Not unlike, quite frankly, when it comes to questions of religion. The Catholic Church and in fact all religions enjoy what is known as the ministerial exemption, which means that in hiring and firing and so forth, rules of religion can be applied that would not be allowed in any other employment context. The court does not want to get in the middle of what is the definition of a minister and it has repeatedly avoided making such decisions. So, this is not a thing that we also don't do in our own instance today. So much so, does the Roman official want to be removed from this situation that even the beating of a synagogue official, this poor Sosthenes, is not enough to get his attention. He simply won't deal with it. In our own lives sometimes we can be like that too. There can be matters of faith that we simply don't want to deal with. There can be things that we simply don't want to challenge. I would say for Catholics, one area is that we don't generally speaking like to talk about our faith if we don't know what other people believe. We tend to want to leave it alone. But Jesus tells us that sharing with the world the good news that God has saved us from our sins is worth talking about. It's worth sharing. Let us ask the Lord to help us to share the good news of our own faith with those who need it so that we might be good disciples of the Lord Jesus, following him wherever he leads, and sharing with people all that he has done for us. On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

Readings for Today. Listen to our other podcasts. The readings today come from the 6th Thursday of Easter. Sometimes the stories in the bible, especially the gospels, are so familiar that we lose the sense of wonder about them. Don't Lose Wonder We've probably all had the experience of seeing either babies or very, very young children. And if we're careful and pay attention, we notice that they get terribly excited over things that we long ago decided were ordinary. Because we got so used to them, we didn't notice them with the same sense of awe and wonder. It's why, for instance, a child can watch the same silly TV show over and over and over again. Because in some ways, the TV show is new all over again. I was listening to a podcast that was talking about babies when they knock things off their high chair. They're little scientists. They knock something off and want to figure out what happens. Oh, it falls on the floor. And then they want to see if it happens again and again and again. Then at some level, they learn that it's kind of annoying and fun, so they keep doing it. Think of the way a very young child thinks of a dandelion. We tend to think of dandelions as weeds. And for some good reason, because they ultimately take over your lawn if you don't get rid of them. But for a little child, dandelions are pretty yellow flowers. I can certainly attest, growing up in Vermont, you'd see whole fields of dandelions. And they were gorgeous when they were in bloom. And they're tasty. Before they go in bloom, I remember as a child, my parents would bring me out and we'd be digging up the dandelion greens for various things. When things become ordinary, they can lose their importance for us. And so we might, quite frankly, not fully appreciate the challenge of the ascension. Today, Jesus has this kind of cryptic phase, "A little while, you will no longer see me, and a little while, and you will see me." And we see that the disciples are thoroughly confused by what Jesus could mean. It would seem, on a human level, that it makes all the sense in the world for Jesus to remain on earth forever. I suspect at one time or another, we have all had the desire to have lived when Jesus lived so we could have seen him and talked with him and interacted with him. But this life is not really the ultimate focus for us as Christians. It's not to say that we don't try to do our best in this life and enjoy the good things of this life, but it's not the end. Heaven is the end. And that is what Jesus does in the ascension. By going to the Father, he and the Father then pour out for us the Holy Spirit. Let us ask the Lord today to help us to recapture the wonder of our faith, that the miraculous events that are so ordinary to us because we've heard them so often might cause our hearts yet again to be filled with wonder. On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

Don't Lose Wonder Readings for Today. Listen to our other podcasts. Note: These readings are for Thursday, the 6th week of Easter. Sometimes the stories in the bible, especially the gospels, are so familiar that we lose the sense of wonder about them. We've probably all had the experience of seeing either babies or very, very young children. And if we're careful and pay attention, we notice that they get terribly excited over things that we long ago decided were ordinary. Because we got so used to them, we didn't notice them with the same sense of awe and wonder. It's why, for instance, a child can watch the same silly TV show over and over and over again. Because in some ways, the TV show is new all over again. I was listening to a podcast that was talking about babies when they knock things off their high chair. They're little scientists. They knock something off and want to figure out what happens. Oh, it falls on the floor. And then they want to see if it happens again and again and again. Then at some level, they learn that it's kind of annoying and fun, so they keep doing it. Think of the way a very young child thinks of a dandelion. We tend to think of dandelions as weeds. And for some good reason, because they ultimately take over your lawn if you don't get rid of them. But for a little child, dandelions are pretty yellow flowers. I can certainly attest, growing up in Vermont, you'd see whole fields of dandelions. And they were gorgeous when they were in bloom. And they're tasty. Before they go in bloom, I remember as a child, my parents would bring me out and we'd be digging up the dandelion greens for various things. When things become ordinary, they can lose their importance for us. And so we might, quite frankly, not fully appreciate the challenge of the ascension. Today, Jesus has this kind of cryptic phase, "A little while, you will no longer see me, and a little while, and you will see me." And we see that the disciples are thoroughly confused by what Jesus could mean. It would seem, on a human level, that it makes all the sense in the world for Jesus to remain on earth forever. I suspect at one time or another, we have all had the desire to have lived when Jesus lived so we could have seen him and talked with him and interacted with him. But this life is not really the ultimate focus for us as Christians. It's not to say that we don't try to do our best in this life and enjoy the good things of this life, but it's not the end. Heaven is the end. And that is what Jesus does in the ascension. By going to the Father, he and the Father then pour out for us the Holy Spirit. Let us ask the Lord today to help us to recapture the wonder of our faith, that the miraculous events that are so ordinary to us because we've heard them so often might cause our hearts yet again to be filled with wonder. On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

We need to see the world also through the eyes of faith. You can't see the covenant with Abraham using the senses alone. And it had to be quite difficult for Abraham to believe hearing about all these descendants he was going to have, when especially at this point in his life, he had no children. It required him to see with the eyes of faith. Full transcript: https://thefriar.org/2024/03/21/see-the-world-through-faith-thursmar21/ On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

We are to seek holiness in our ordinary lives. We can forget that the saints were fully human. Mary, Joseph. They had to discover and develop this relationship with God in the same way you and I do. They had to figure out who was this Jesus. Full transcript at https://thefriar.org/2024/03/19/holiness-in-ordinary-life-tues-mar19/ On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

"Where are you?" That was the question in the book of Genesis when Adam and Eve sinned. Where are you? They hid. In fact, it's what we all do, on some level, when we are confronted with our own sin. We hide. We hide from God, and we often find ourselves hiding from each other, presenting one image, but knowing deep down inside that's not who we are. Full transcript at https://thefriar.org/2024/03/18/dont-hide-homily-for-monday-march-18-2025/ On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

We need a savior. And if we are like St. Dominic, we recognize this best when we are occupied with speaking to God or about God. Full transcript at https://thefriar.org/2024/03/17/why-do-we-need-a-savior-homily-sun-mar17/ On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

Probably the least favorite word, the first least favorite word that we learned in our lives was the word "no." But nonetheless, tell a toddler "no" and that often results in a great difficulty. There can be a meltdown, there can be anger, they can say things like "I hate you" because they don't like the word "no." Full Transcript at https://thefriar.org/2024/03/15/our-least-favorite-word-no-fri-mar15/ On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

Today's readings remind us to keep God close. Moses is delayed and the people are discouraged. They take matters into their own hands, which ends badly. Do we sometimes do the same? Full transcript at https://thefriar.org/2024/03/14/keep-god-close-homily-for-thursday-mar14/ On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

The temple, which we hear about in both readings, was critically important for this coming together of the law of God and the lived example of people.The true temple is the Lord Jesus himself. It is in the Lord Jesus that humanity and divinity come together. And it is in Jesus himself that this man now is healed. Full transcript at https://thefriar.org/2024/03/12/jesus-is-the-temple-homily-for-tues-mar12/ On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

We could go on and on with the struggles and the challenges that people face. But the solution to them all is the same. Call. Call upon Jesus. Full transcript at https://thefriar.org/2024/03/11/call-upon-jesus-homily-for-monday-march-11/ On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

Moses lifting up the serpent so people can be saved. The lifting of Jesus on the cross. We have very powerful parallels that teach us something fundamental to the core of our faith. And the fundamental core is that we need a Savior. Full transcript at https://thefriar.org/2024/03/10/the-lifting-up-of-jesus-homily-sun-mar10/

Whose side are you on? That's really what the readings are about today. Whose side are we on? Are we on the side of Jesus or not? Do we stand with our Lord or not? Full transcript at: https://thefriar.org/2024/03/07/whose-side-are-you-on-homily-thurs-mar7/ On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

In Confession, we come with the Church. The entire people of God comes before us, represented in the priest who celebrates the sacrament. But even more important, when we come to the sacrament of confession, our loving God holds us for we are beloved daughters and sons of his. Full transcript at: https://thefriar.org/2024/03/05/god-holds-you-in-confession-tues-mar5/ On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

The river was too puny. The country was too small. The king was being set up. Only Elisha was able to see as God sees. Full transcript at https://thefriar.org/2024/03/04/do-we-see-as-god-sees-homily-for-mon-mar4/ On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

The mid-term exam. Well, as I said at the beginning, we are about halfway through the season of Lent. And the purpose of Lent is change. It's repentance. We should be qualitatively different at the end of the season of Lent than we were at the start. How's it going? Full transcript at https://thefriar.org/2024/03/03/mid-term-time-for-lent-homily-sunday-mar3/ On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

"You're not the boss of me." Maybe that is something you said to a brother or a sister. Or maybe to a friend when you are a kid. But do we say this to God? Full transcript can be found at https://thefriar.org/2024/03/01/youre-not-the-boss-of-me-homily-fri-mar1/ On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

Trust is at the heart of a life of faith. It's not at the expense of reason, it's not at the expense of pragmatism, but faith always has pride of place. And so let us ask the Lord today that we might be inspired by one who is risen from the dead. Full transcript at https://thefriar.org/2024/02/29/trust-in-god-or-trust-in-humanity-feb29/ On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

Believe what you read. Teach what you believe. Practice what you teach. These words are the words of leadership in the Church. We would all be served to use them. Full transcript at https://thefriar.org/2024/02/27/practice-what-you-teach-homily-tues-feb27/ On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.