Posted by Web Staff on 4/17/22
In Christian art, the martyrs are often shown holding palm branches as symbols of victory over temptation and suffering. These martyrs are our older brothers and sisters in the faith - God wants us to learn from and be encouraged by them. Take the example of St Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna. In the year 155, Polycarp was condemned to ... Read More »
Posted by Web Staff on 4/08/22
When we find someone doing evil, especially if their sin is hurting us, we automatically want to act like the Pharisees - to condemn the sinner as well as the sin. But the fact is we really don't know the whole story, only God does. We don't have the ... Read More »
Posted by Web Staff on 4/08/22
St. Paul expresses this with a wonderful phrase: "Whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold new things have come." The grace God has given us isn't like a new set of clothes that just changes us on the outside. It changes us on the inside. It makes us into new creations, sturdy ... Read More »
Posted by Web Staff on 3/27/22
What does it mean to repent? It means to turn around. Instead of looking in the mirror all the time and thinking about our-selves - how we feel, what we want, how we can get ahead - we turn around and look out the window. There we see the path that God wants us to follow. We see things that we ... Read More »
Posted by Web Staff on 3/20/22
Early Christian art created some beautiful images to communicate the importance and benefits of prayer. One particularly memorable image is found in the Church of St. Apollinare in Classe, in the Italian city of Ravenna. Ravenna was the capital of the western half of the Byzantine Empire in the early Middle Ages. The churches built during those ... Read More »
Posted by Web Staff on 3/15/22
Sin is, at heart, rebellion against God. Since God created us to live in communion with Him, in Whom we find happiness, sin always involves seeking happiness in some other place than in communion with God. There are three of these places, three idols we can worship. They correspond to Jesus' three temptations. JRR Tolkien, ... Read More »
Posted by Web Staff on 3/08/22
This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. A day to remind us that this world is passing and that our true home is in heaven. But in order to receive our heavenly inheritance required Jesus, the Son of God, to endure His passion and death. A great act of love and mercy for us. To prepare ourselves for ... Read More »
Posted by Web Staff on 2/27/22
Today’s readings remind us that Our Lord has taught us a truly human way of living, giving us an example in His earthly life so that we gradually learn to treat others not necessarily as they treat us, but as how Our Lord would treat them. In today’s First Reading not-yet-King David is being pursued by King ... Read More »
Posted by Web Staff on 2/20/22
St. Luke tells us that a great crowd had gathered, from all over Palestine. It must have been like the World Youth Day gatherings with the Pope: a whole stadium full of people: rich and poor, the suffering, the curious, the young, the old - all looking hopefully up at Jesus. Jesus "fixes His eyes on them", St. Luke ... Read More »
Posted by Web Staff on 2/14/22
Bosco Gutiérrez Cortina, a wealthy executive in Mexico, shares a story of when he was kidnapped. The kidnappers wanted to extort a large amount of money from his family. They kept him in a room with no windows and no clocks; they piped in the same hour-long music mix ... Read More »