It’s fitting that the readings on this first Sunday of Lent are about spritual awakenings. In the first reading the Holy Spirit bursts through the flood waters via the souls of Noah and his family. This was the spark of God’s new covenant with man, his second chance at redemption. That covenant was then made […]

I could relate tothe paralytic in today’s Gospel reading. I attended mass today with my left ankle in a cast–having fractured it in a slipping-while-jogging incident the previous Monday. Why bother going to mass so soon after such an injury–and on crutches, yet? Isn’t that a little show-offy? First of all, for such an ugly […]

Today’s first reading from Leviticus is another of those downers when not read in context with the second reading and the gospel. Here’s a poor soul with leprosy who’s told to warn people that he’s unclean. The point of all three readings is we’re ALL unclean–and dependent on God’s word to heal ourselves. The irony […]

Thank God for the second reading and the gospel reading at today’s mass. The first reading from Job was a real bummer. If that’s all we would have had to chew on for the rest of our day (Job’s tale of woe and drudgery that became his life) it wouldn’t give us much to be […]