Daily Reflections

The Angelic Doctor

By Erin Szurgot / January 28, 2024 /

Today’s saint of the day is one of the church’s greatest theologians and a Doctor of the Church: St. Thomas Aquinas. It would be hard to overstate his impact on both the Church and the world. St. Thomas was born in Italy in 1225. When he was 19 years old,…

Read More

Who Is This Man?

By Fr. John Opara / January 27, 2024 /

The Call of the Disciple: The call of the disciples at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry shows God’s decisiveness to establish his kingdom on earth. Jesus’ method was simple. First calling the disciples to be with him, and later to be sent out, to impact their world. Being with…

Read More

Go Make a Difference

By Arlene Braganza / January 26, 2024 /

Yesterday we celebrated the conversion of St. Paul, and what a dramatic conversion it was! From being such a ferocious persecutor of Christians, he turned into the most fervent disciple of Jesus. And his fervor was not limited to just traveling and preaching to the people of distant lands, but…

Read More

Paul’s Conversion Encounter with Jesus

By Fr. Luke Ijezie / January 25, 2024 /

Today the Church celebrates the conversion of St. Paul, who is regarded as the Apostle to the nations. The first reading of the day’s liturgy from Acts 22: 3-16 (cf. Acts 9: 1-22) recounts, in graphic details, the story of Paul’s conversion. The turning point was his encounter with Jesus…

Read More

A Play of Evangelization

By Nicole Buchholz / January 24, 2024 /

The enjoyable part about today’s Gospel (Mk. 4:1-20) is that it is written like a two-scene play. You can just see the scenes playing out in your mind as it is read. Scene one is Jesus preaching parables from a boat to a crowd on the beach. Scene two is…

Read More

David Danced Before the Ark of the Lord

By Fr. Cyriacus Uzochukwu / January 23, 2024 /

My dear friends, the first reading is very interesting. It expresses the joy of King David before the Ark of the Lord. He moved the Ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the capital city of Jerusalem, which he recovered from his enemies with great rejoicing. Recall that…

Read More

Eve of the Espousal

By Lizzie Gildner / January 22, 2024 /

“You shall shepherd my people Israel and shall be commander of Israel.” Today is the eve of the formerly known commemoration honoring the Espousal of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph. The St. Benedict Center and The Latin Mass Magazine (2019) suggest that January 23rd was the date of…

Read More

At Once

By Deborah van Kroonenburg / January 21, 2024 /

Peter speaks: You ask me, was it really ‘at once?’ As I told the story to Mark, it seemed to me that what happened then, and in the ensuing months, was just a moment in time. I could hardly draw breath to recite the details, as if they would disappear…

Read More

Anxious about Association with Jesus

By Tom Nash / January 20, 2024 /

Today’s Gospel Reading is brief, puzzling, and troubling. By this time in his earthly ministry, Jesus was attracting increasingly larger crowds, so much that it became “impossible” for him and disciples “even to eat” (Mark 3:20). Little wonder, given that Jesus had healed many, including cleansing a leper and casting…

Read More

The Lord’s Anointed

By D'Souza Family / January 19, 2024 /

On tap for today’s reflection is the compassion shown by David towards King Saul who is hunting him down with the aim of truncating his life. Finding the king at his mercy, David overcomes an initial temptation of killing his oppressor, and immediately has remorse and spares his life. David…

Read More