If the people witnessing the miracle of the loaves and fish in last week’s gospel reading were celebrating their first communion, this week’s gospel is a confirmation. In both the secular and the Christian meanings of the word “confirmation,” an…
This Sunday’s gospel account of the loaves and fishes miracle (Jn 6:1-15) is familiar to many of us, so it offers a good opportunity to take a fresh perspective. When you read it at mass, pretend you’re walking into the…
God’s incarnation as Christ was a miracle in many ways, but there’s one in particular we rarely think about. Through Christ God made Himself vulnerable to his own limitless empathy. After all those centuries of guiding his sheep via those…
We’re born into this world with full-time jobs. From day 1 we are constantly remanufacturing the best version of ourselves. As Matthew Kelly wrote in his book, The Rhythm of Life, we’re part of a divine engineering process to fulfill…
We humans seem to be better at spotting evil in others than in ourselves. Evil isn’t always dramatic like stabbing or a robbing someone. In fact sometimes the most dangerous evil is banal, or boring, because we don’t even notice…
If someone were to find a cure for alcoholism or nicotine addiction, the media would call it a miracle. What a shame the word miracle has to be associated with man’s tendency toward self-destruction. Diseases that would have never existed…
This Sunday’s mass readings seem hand-selected for Father’s Day. The first from the Book of Job (Jb 38:1, 8-11), reminded me of the classic Dad line: “I brought you into this world, I can take you out!”—except God says something…
There was a lot of talk about the “God particle” last year. This was the nickname given the subatomic particle formally named the Higgs boson. Scientists say this particle gives mass to matter. Scientists with faith the size of a…
We’re on our second contract with God, and if I were Him I’d have sued us a long time ago. Humanity isn’t much better at living up to the terms of this second one as we were with the first.…
This is Pentecost Sunday. Yes, I know last week was the official feast, but every mass is designed to be a Pentecost of its own, where the Holy Spirit comes down on everyone and prepares them to go out and…