The figure of St. Stephen the Martyr is very attractive. He was a deacon and charged, along with others, to feed the Greek widows in Jerusalem and probably to perform other practical tasks in that early Church community. He was also a very intelligent and wise man. He was able...
When someone you love leaves you, to live elsewhere perhaps or to go to God, there is no question that that is very painful. But once you get over the pain, or manage to handle it, the memory of that person and their love is still present to you. For,...
The Gospel today zooms in on Jesus at prayer. It is like a camera shot on the television screen which has Jesus stand alone in the spotlight. But, as his prayer tells us, he is not alone. As the spotlight widens, we see him with the ties he has to...
Just over sixty years ago, good Pope John XXIII announced that there would be a Second Vatican Council. It was to renew how the Church announced her teaching to the world. Although some misunderstood the nature of that renewal, there were many wonderful fruits of genuine renewal which came, and...
The human voice is almost as expressive as the human face. Depending on its tone, pitch and strength, a voice tells us as much as the words it conveys. Someone’s voice can by itself bring comfort and reassurance or fear and upset. The voice is the instrument of our mind...
We know that Peter had a strong love for Jesus. He had wanted Jesus to be spared the Cross. He had wanted to walk with Jesus on the water. He had wanted to give his life for Jesus even if everyone else abandoned him. He had wanted Jesus to be...
They arrived too late. The stone had already been rolled away. The cloths on his body had already been cast aside. He had already gone. The Resurrection of Jesus, the most important event in history, the event that takes history beyond history and into the realm of the divine, was...
“Near the Cross of Jesus stood his mother.” Once upon a time, she had been nearer still to him: when he was in her womb, when he was in the crib. But those former nearnesses did not yet have the depth and maturity of her nearness to the Cross. In...
The truth about Christmas emerges in its fullness in the three holiest days ofthe year, the Sacred Triduum, which begin today with Holy Thursday. In theCreed we profess that the Son of God came down from heaven and took fleshof the Virgin for us and for our salvation. What is...
I always remember as a boy finding it difficult to make a Cross out of the palm yougot on Palm Sunday. I also remember how quickly the palm placed behind thecrucifix at home went from green to that faded, dried-up, yellowish colour. By thetime Palm Sunday came around again the...
