Praying Alone Together: CYCLE-C-2022

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Christ the King

The Thirty Fourth Sunday of Ordinary TimeLk 23: 35-43Dear Friends,The Angel said to Mary, “You shall name him Jesus. He will be great and called the Son of the Most High and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father….And Mary said, “How can this be?” (Lk 1:31-34)On this feast of Christ...

Lk 21:5-19Dear Parishioners, As the Church Year draws to a rapid conclusion, the Gospel message is once again a story of the end. Last week it was a personal ending. This week it is the end of the world. Luke’s description in today’s Gospel is the destruction of the Temple. It is the first of three...

Teresa of Avila’s classic, The Interior Castle, is about purification and transformation on the pilgrimage to God. It has an uncanny similarity to the role of purgatory in our salvation. The following five reflections seek to flesh out some positive elements in this connection. In sum, it is our invitation...

Lk 27:27-38 Dear Parishioners, In today’s Gospel story the Sadducees challenge Jesus with a simplistic and absurd story about seven brothers marrying the same woman. Jesus turns the story into a profound truth that we profess in the Apostles’ Creed: the resurrection of the body. But...

Lk 19:1-10 Dear Parishioners,"Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and a wealthy man, was seeking to see who Jesus was." (Lk 19:2) Jesus shattered the norms of correctness and invited himself to dinner at Zacchaeus’ home. In the process, the restless tax collector was introduced into the Jesus...

Luke 18, 9-14Dear Parishioners,I grew up in St. Laurence parish on the South Side of Chicago. It was a very beautiful and enriching experience in many ways. But like anything else human, it suffered from the blindness revealed in today’s Gospel. Over the years, I have found myself growing in awareness...

LK 18:1-8Dear Friends, There are a couple of points we need to make right away. The parable of the judge and widow does not teach us that we can eventually win God over to our side by our strong-minded resolve. The real lesson for us in the story is this: not to lose hope in spite of all the hardships...

Luke 17:11-19Dear Friends, The first words of today’s passage from Luke are “As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem”. (Lk 17:11) We have been with Jesus for fifteen weeks on this journey to Jerusalem and have three more to go. It has been a time of learning how to be a true disciple.When the journey...

Lk 17:5-10Dear Friends, This short passage in today’s Gospel is part of a longer section. Here Jesus is continuing to teach the disciples what it meant of be his follower. Immediately, before today’s selection, Jesus presented the challenging news about forgiveness. For those listening in Jesus’ presence,...

Lk 16:19-31Dear Friends, In his Gospel, Luke puts great emphasis on the theme of reversal. Right at the beginning we have in Mary’s great hymn, the Magnificat: “He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things, the rich he has sent away...

Lk 16:1-13 Dear Friends, When we finally work through this most puzzling of all the parables in today’s Gospel, the message is clear and strong. We need to use our money and possessions to enter the Kingdom. You can call it a plea for Kingdom economics. It is an invitation to a rather difficult...

Lk 15: 1-32Dear Friends,All three parables have one dominant and common theme. They are totally excessive in their contradiction of common sense. They all point to the extravagance of God’s mercy. Particularly, the story of the father and the sons changes the theme from sin and forgiveness. This was...

LK 14:25-33Dear Friends, These words of Jesus are very strong. In fact, they are the most extreme in expressing the demands of discipleship in all of the Gospels. Likewise, they probably are the most neglected. It is clear from the rest of Gospel that Jesus does not mean that we “hate” our loved ones....

LK 14:1, 7-14Dear Friends, As always, today’s Gospel passage has many levels. On the surface, Jesus is offering some practical advice. It touches on two strong customs in his day: hospitality and reciprocity. Both were wedded to the idea of, “You do something for me and I will return the favor”. Luke...

Luke 13:22-30Dear Friends, Religion is a very tricky business. A lot of selfishness takes place in the name of Jesus. Often, what seems to be, really is not, and what really is, does not seem to be. St. Luke is very strong in presenting this theme of reversal. Today, we close the Gospel with another...

Lk 12:49-53Dear Friends, Our Gospel today places us in the midst of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem. Luke’s ten chapters dedicated to this passage are mostly an invitation to enter into the depths of Jesus’ message. This movement is the most fundamental and clarifying experience of the human reality: the...

Luke 12:32-48 Dear Friends, I get the impression that most people come to worship on Sunday to change God. They have real problems and concerns. They have a plan for what is necessary for them and their loved ones to be happy. They know they need God’s help to bring that plan to completion. Therefore,...

Lk 12:13-21Dear Friends, In today’s Gospel, Jesus responds to the request to intervene in the family dispute by telling a story. The message is clear and direct. Do not be a fool. Hebrew Scriptures have a clear understanding of what constitutes a fool. This is a person who has denied or forgotten God....

Lk 11: 1-13 Dear Friends, Today, we have the Lukan version of the Our Father. This special prayer is the culmination and deepest expression of all the prayers in the Bible. It has been described as the summary of the Gospel.Down through the centuries, the saints, and particularly the Doctors of the...

Part One(In the second dwelling places it becomes clear that Teresa is not primarily interested in offering a method of prayer. Her goal is to describe the individual’s growing awareness of the experience of God. She is describing the journey to the center where God awaits. Prayer is the way forward...

Praying Alone Together

Christ the King

Thirty Third Sunday of Ordinary Time-C

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