FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

Lk 15:1-3, 11-32Dear Friends, Today’s parable enjoys the popular name of the Prodigal Son. This title loses much of the drama and message of the parable. It is definitely about three persons. Each character has much to teach us. Luke’s magnificent parable, by whatever name, continues this Lent’s theme...

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THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

Lk 13:1-9Dear Friends, We begin Lent each year with a clear message, “Repent and believe in the gospel!” After having measured Jesus’ temptations and his Transfiguration in light of our life experience and struggle, we now journey three weeks in Luke’s Gospel on the theme of repentance. Today’s gospel...

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THE SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT

Lk 9:28-36Dear Friends, Each Lent, we have the Transfiguration story on the second Sunday. This tantalizing peak at the glorious Christ offers us a challenge to move deeper into the reality of a Suffering Messiah and our own life. We are relentlessly pulled in an opposite direction of the Cross by the...

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The Way of Prayer: A Guide to the Footsteps of Jesus

The material in this selection is a more advanced message for readers who are more urgent in their search for the gift of contemplation. This is first in a series of blogs on the Christian life, prayer and self-knowledge.IThe Easter Vigil is the most sacred of all liturgical celebrations. The Liturgy...

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FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT

Luke 4:1-12Dear Friends, We began our Lenten journey on Ash Wednesday with the command, “Repent, and believe in the Good News.” Lent, we need to remember, is a time to enter within, to examine the hidden depths of our heart. As we enter more deeply within, we will find our brokenness but also a real...

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EIGHTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Lk 6:39-45Dear Friends, Today, Luke again addresses the incredibly demanding task of being fair and just with our neighbor. Luke is reminding us of the severe difficulty of honest, healthy and caring relations between human beings. Only with severe difficulty do we really know what is going on inside...

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THE JOURNEY OF ABRAHAM AND DEEP PERSONAL PRAYER

Salvation HistoryThere are countless ways the Bible has been used and abused down through history. We need to continuously return to a simple truth about the Sacred Book and its message. An accurate description of the Bible is this: the Bible is the story of Abraham and his family and their experience...

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SEVENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Lk 6:27-38Dear Friends. Today’s gospel selection offers more of Luke’s challenging message of the Sermon on the Plain. The passage could hardly be more demanding. Turn the other cheek, offer the tunic as well, do not demand the loan to be repaid and respond to a curse with a blessing: all of these commands...

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A JOURNEY OF LOVE

From Contemplative Prayer to Contemplation:Many people of goodwill share a common desire to become more contemplative. This generally means a desire for a deeper spirituality. This move to a more profound level is called for by our pastors and religious leaders, by our friends and spouses and, in our...

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SIXTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Lk 6:17, 20-26Dear Friends, Luke’s Gospel has a very strong theme of reversal. In his view of salvation, there truly is “Good News” for the poor and marginalized. Likewise, as Mary proclaimed the Magnificat, we read:“He has shown might with his armAnd dispersed the arrogant of mind and heartHe has thrown...

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JOHN OF THE CROSS

A Brief IntroductionWhen I read John of the Cross now after decades of struggle in the spiritual journey, I look back to my seminary days. I wonder what, if anything, I understood from my class on John of the Cross. Today, I can understand the common idiom: “You don’t begin with the classics. You slowly...

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FIFTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Luke 5:1-11Dear Friends, In today’s gospel there is a phrase that Jesus uses that is especially pregnant with meaning. When he tells Peter to try again after a futile night’s work where he failed to catch even a few fish, Jesus tells Peter, “Put out into the deep…” (Lk 5:4) Peter follows Jesus’ command. ...

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THE EXPERIENCE OF CONTEMPLATION

 The vast majority of honest seekers of God do not achieve a very deep Experience of contemplation, if any. There are two reasons. It is a complex topic that requires a good dose of guidance. Much more significantly, contemplation involves an increasing and costly level of self-sacrifice. Contemplation...

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FOURTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Lk 4:21-30Dear Friends, Today’s gospel passage offers a dramatic turn of events. It is a look back and a plunge into the future. It is hard to grasp the incredibly rapid transformation from “All spoke highly of him.” (Lk 4:22) to they “led him to the brow of the hill…to hurl him down headlong.” (Lk...

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THIRD SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Lk 1:1-4; 4:14-21My Dear Friends in Christ, In today’s gospel passage Luke has us experience Jesus’ message to his townsfolk. They gather in anticipation, and with a bit of apprehension, to encounter this Jesus that was causing a bit of a stir.Luke uses this troubled homecoming to bring us into the...

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