Posts by John and Kathy Schultz
Making a Radical Choice for God
One of the greatest gifts my parents gave me was sending me to Catholic elementary school. During my five years at St. Philip Neri, fifty percent of my teachers were the Sisters of Saint Joseph. In the 1960’s our nuns were in full habit from wimple to the large rosary beads cascading down the front…
Read MoreThe Lord is My Shepherd
This Sunday’s readings include the beautiful and iconic 23rd psalm – “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.” Until recently I was not well acquainted with the psalms. However, I do recall two encounters with the 23rd psalm. In the 1980 movie The Elephant Man the title character, Joseph Merrick, suffers…
Read MoreOur Lord Speaks
In today’s Gospel Jesus is addressing a crowd of Jews. Imagine if you were among that crowd and heard Jesus proclaim, “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever keeps my word will never see death” and “…but it is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ You do not…
Read MoreDrop the Shackles
Confronting Evil One of my favorite words and what it implies is “metanoia.” The Oxford dictionary defines metanoia as, “change in one’s way of life resulting from penitence or spiritual conversion.” Today’s Gospel describes a dramatic metanoia initiated by Jesus in the story of the Gerasene demoniac; “What have you to do with me, Jesus,…
Read MoreFinding and Using Our Gifts
Jesus Calls “Come after me and I will make you fishers of men.” Christ’s mission to save our world began with an invitation to humble fishermen. He did not begin his ministry in the temple in Jerusalem, or the courts of Herod or even in the Roman praetorium. What did Christ see in Andrew and…
Read MoreThe Boundlessness of God’s Mercy
The first reading for today’s Mass, from the book of Wisdom, provides enough reflection for an entire notebook. The opening lines are a beautiful poetic description of God’s majesty and omnipotence. They are about as close as human language can come to describing the indescribable. After setting the stage by comparing the insignificance of the…
Read MoreGod’s Earthly Creations
Today’s readings remind me of the immensity of God; He is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. But the readings also remind me of how limited our human minds are in understanding God being omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient! “Have you entered into the sources of the sea, or walked about in the depths of the abyss?” (Jb…
Read MoreFools of This World
Chapter 4 of Luke’s gospel starts with a dramatic account of the start of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. It is one of my favorite scenes. Luke builds up the dramatic tension as Jesus is handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He reads Isaiah’s well-known prophecy – written some seven hundred year earlier. The synagogue…
Read MoreThree Prophets
Who would envy the life of a prophet? We know from many bible stories that the lot of a prophet is often one of ridicule and rejection, if not outright danger of physical abuse and death. In addition to these overt tribulations, prophets also face the potential for a quieter but more devastating rejection –…
Read MoreCure from Paralysis
Of all the types of illness we may dread, the fear of paralysis likely ranks high on the list for us. The total inability to act for oneself creates profound needs. Unable to relieve the smallest and most basic of physical needs, the paralytic is dependent upon others. At a first quick read of today’s…
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