Friends, with this Mass of the Lord’s Supper, we are entering into the most solemn, the most holy time of the Christian year. Today, we focus on the great themes of Salvation History: Passover, Exodus, the Eucharist, Priesthood, and the Mystical Body of Christ, that is, the People of God. These themes are especially significant for us during our own time of isolation. We do well to draw upon the history of the people of Israel, who time and again experienced isolation from one another and most…
This Passion Sunday and Holy Week will be like no other we have experienced before. Unable to worship together in God’s house, we are like Jesus in today’s Gospel: bound in chains, locked in prison, and under constant scrutiny–at least that is how it may seem. Perhaps now, more than ever before, we can relate to the profound isolation our Blessed Lord experienced throughout his Passion–isolation to the point of crying out to his Father, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”…
Last night, the pastor and I did a live stream called “Stump the Priest” on our parish YouTube channel. During the stream, one of the questions asked was: Why do we not say “please” when we pray the Lord’s Prayer (Our Father)? At first examination, it does seem as though we are demanding things from God: give us our daily bread…forgive us our trespasses, etc. And while the answer to why we pray this way is simple: It is how Jesus taught us to pray (see Mt.…
The passages from the Book of the Prophet Daniel are related. One would do well to read the chapter in its entirety, however, suffice it to say the First Reading gives us the beginning and the end, while the Responsorial Psalm is the taken from the middle of the chapter (the Psalm is the song the men sang in the midst of the flames). The prophet Daniel lived during the Babylonian Exile and because of his ability to predict the future, a grace sometimes given to prophets, King Nebuchadnezzar…
