Daily Reflections
The Council of Jerusalem marked a historic moment in the early Church’s attempt to grapple with the tension between divine truth and cultural traditions. The Council addressed a crucial question: can salvation be found outside Jewish law and customs? As narrated in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 15, the…
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I tend to root for the underdog. Everyone expects winners to win all the time, and that upsets will not happen. However, there are groundswells of support when underdogs start to have their day. The public rallies around the underdogs and support grows. In the USA, we have the annual…
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Today the Church celebrates the memorial of this great female saint. This painting, perhaps, does not speak much to our modern sensibility and sense of art. Perhaps. The one below, by the same Italian painter, is better known and, perhaps, more inspiring. The point is that in the first painting,…
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“It will suffice to tell you in a word: only your personal and profound union with Christ will assure the fruitfulness of your apostolate, whatever it may be.” -St Pope Paul VI These words capture the heart of today’s Gospel. No matter what your vocation is, if you do not…
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The Greek word γινώσκω (ginosko), meaning to know, is used 141 times in John’s Gospel. It is used in different ways, because there are different levels of knowing and different reasons for knowing something. The first stage is knowing a fact. The next level is understanding the truth. And the…
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Jesus tenderly tells us today, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.” In this tumultuous world we live in, where there is so much discord and animosity, amidst wars breaking out in different parts of the globe, Jesus’ words are…
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The missionary mandate in the Gospel of Mark is to go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to all creation. This means that every creature is meant to hear the Good News. Jesus knows that the message is a joyful one for all cadres of creation. So, he…
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Overwhelmed by Good News. Sometimes I get overwhelmed. It can be about my health or about another’s circumstances, or it can be the kindness of others, or the goodness of God. I imagine that the first years after the death of Jesus were full of overwhelming experiences for those who…
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My dear friends, the gospel today is all about the instruction of Jesus to his disciples over the difficult challenges of following him. He told them the hard truth. He says: ‘if the world hates you’ (John 15: 18), of course, he knows that the world hates his disciples. Jesus…
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For the reflection today, I want to share God’s beauty hidden in rural Missouri, where I recently took a pilgrimage to. For context, Sister Wilhelmina was ninety-five at the time of her death in May 2019. Her body is present in Gower, Missouri with the community Benedictines of Mary, Queen…
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