Posts by John and Kathy Schultz
Saintly Lives
God loves to surprise us when answering our prayers. This morning I realized a January reflection was needed—today! John and I have written several times about the call to Andrew and Peter which was today’s Gospel message. I said a prayer to the Holy Spirit to help me either discover a new insight to the…
Read MoreThe Presentation in the Temple
The waiting is over. Emmanuel is now with us. God, incarnate in Jesus, has begun His great rescue mission to humanity. Jesus has ransomed captive Israel and all the nations of the earth. The readings today echo the waiting of the Advent season but also recapitulate the exile and glory of Israel. In the story…
Read MoreCalled to Be Saved: The Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle
God’s Call to Israel: The two readings today speak together in a rich interweaving of theology, the early history of Christianity, and salvation. Paul starts us off in the tenth chapter of his master work letter to the Christian community in Rome. He lays out the necessary conditions for salvation: “If you confesswith your lips…
Read MoreJesus, Healer of the World
The response for today’s Psalm is “Our God is the God of salvation.” When God became man in the person of Jesus Christ, He came to lead a fallen human race to salvation. His mission of salvation to the world includes healing. First spiritual healing, but also plenty of physical healing. In our Gospel reading,…
Read MoreJesus Condemns the Scribes and Pharisees
Jesus’ condemnation of false teachers in today’s reading from the 23rd chapter of Matthew is among the strongest and most stinging of His comments in the Gospels. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and…
Read MoreA Wise Leader
“Then every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of Heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.” This particular line from today’s Gospel caught my attention. I imagine Pope Francis as the scribe who uses both the old ideas and practices as…
Read MoreTo Believe
Faithful Believers. As a faithful Catholic, at least once a week, we recite our profession of faith. We state our belief in God the Father, Jesus Christ the son and the Holy Spirit. Too often I say the Nicene Creed in a rote fashion, rarely focusing on each of the words that are the foundation…
Read MoreMaking 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…
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