We are an Easter People and Alleluia is our Song! St. Augustine may never have actually used these exact words, but he preached often about Easter and the Easter Alleluia. He said that it is our defining song, the song that we will sing forever in paradise! And it is a song that our lives …
Easter has finally come after our time of Lent; a time for celebration. The liturgy of Easter Vigil (Holy Saturday evening) expresses this celebratory attitude in abundance with rich symbolism, rituals, and Scripture readings which remind us of God’s saving action through history and the Resurrection. A culmination of our Lenten journey and now there …
Good Friday, the solemn day when we annually remember the suffering, humiliation and death of Jesus on a Cross, but why do Christians chose to remember such a sad and tragic day? Why not skip over to Easter and ignore Jesus’ pain as it can make some very uncomfortable to face the horror of this …
What makes a memorable meal? I mean one that you know you will reflect back upon years later? Is it the people, the food, the conversation, the occasion or perhaps all of these? This evening we celebrate a meal that has become memorable for all Christianity. But, unlike other meals, its importance was not in …
A glorious entry into Jerusalem which a few days later ends with the Passion and death of Jesus. What a downer? How can we adjust to this within a week- especially a week labeled ‘Holy’. This week tells us how life can change and how fickle people can be. Jesus was welcomed as a future …
Sin- that word we dread to hear – is rarely spoken about nowadays and except perhaps by some well-known, fundamentalist preachers who seem to speak of nothing else. Perhaps this hesitation to think about sin is a reaction to some Church leaders who in the past seemed obsessed with it or perhaps it flows from …
1900 seems like a long time ago, but it really isn’t in the big scheme of things. The top three causes of death in the United States that year were tuberculosis, pneumonia, and diarrhea/enteritis.1 Diphtheria was number 10 in the list of all causes of death in the U.S. Eighteen years later, a deadly influenza …
Welcome to the Fourth Sunday of Lent- how has the Lenten journey been going so far; no doubt you have had high points and low points in trying to focus on God through prayer, fasting and almsgiving. But that is the way it is with any journey, so hang in there and pray that the …
Today, as on each March 24th, is World Tuberculosis Day marking the day in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch announced he had discovered the bacterium that causes tuberculosis1,2. Tuberculosis remains the world’s deadliest infectious killer.2,6. Every day 30,000 people fall ill from tuberculosis and 4500 people per day die2. This disease burden is borne primarily …
Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15; I Cor. 10:1-6. 10-12; and Luke 13: 1-9. Almost halfway through Lent how is everyone doing? I hope this season is giving us a reason to find extra time for reflection and prayer as well as motivation to reach out to the poor. Today’s first reading is from the Book of Exodus …