How we live our daily lives matters; it is not just about getting up every morning and doing our best to get through the day. What small but important things do we do each day that brings joy and hope to others and not just ourselves? The challenge and invitation of waiting and being prepared […]

We can also reflect on how similar our current situation is to that of Jesus’ first followers. Like them, we also live in days of uncertainty, haunted by threats of violence, but the Beatitudes promise that what we experience today will lead to future joy. Like those women and men so many years ago, we […]

The Christian understanding of love involves giving selflessly to another. Love is relational. If you love someone, it doesn’t merely mean you have certain feelings for that person, but that you are willing to sacrifice for their benefit. Love, in fact, is a choice. It is a choice to give freely of yourself for the […]

In today’s Gospel passages, Jesus gave us the freedom to act in the public arena. But, with that freedom comes a responsibility. God calls us to act for the good of all. In this way, our participation becomes an act of Christian charity (and a means of evangelization). Thus, those in need and society as […]

We celebrate each week our small taste of the eternal banquet in the Eucharist at Mass. On the surface it may seem to pale in comparison with the sumptuous food and drink we find on this earth, nonetheless with faith we realize that the love it expresses is worth more than all the pleasures we […]

Today’s Gospel is not a parable of forgiveness and love but of the truth of faith. He calls us to bear fruit for the Kingdom of God or it shall be taken from us, just like the tenants of the vineyard. In layman’s terms, we have to do His will or risk never knowing the […]

Today’s Gospel reading asks each of us whether or not we are about the Father’s business. It is very easy for us to think that because we do the external things which give others and sometimes ourselves the impression that we are good Christians; that we are fulfilling the obligations which good sons and daughters […]

We can, unfortunately, be rather like the workers in today’s Gospel – except that the stakes are rather higher than a day’s wage. God has offered us eternal life and asks us to serve Him in this world until the day when we are with Him forever. The problem is that we can be tempted […]

God has offered us mercy, but we still need to accept this incredible gift. As we learn in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, because God is merciful and has forgiven our debt of sin, which we could never pay, we must, in turn, be merciful toward others. Most people have faced situations where they […]

Today’s Gospel points us toward the origins of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The reconciliation available in the life of the Church is the reconciliation Jesus brings to the world. The words with which our reading ends, though brief, have immense importance to us, as we seek to understand more fully in the mystery of the […]