Monthly Archives: July 2009

Thursday of the Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time

Today’s readings The Israelites wandering in the desert would seem to have had the spiritual life easy. How could they possibly miss God’s presence? There was a cloud to lead them to the Lord by day, and fire by night. … Continue reading

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St. Martha

Today’s readings You know, I think St. Martha gets kind of a bad rap in general.  She is maybe best known for the fact that she complained about having to do all the cooking and serving while her sister Mary … Continue reading

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Tuesday of the Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time

Today’s readings Today’s Gospel is perhaps a bit more vivid for me this week, because on Sunday I spent time weeding the side yard at my mother’s house.  It’s not a task I really look forward to, but it is … Continue reading

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Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Today’s readings The Bread of Life Discourse: an outline Bishop Kaffer used to say that every celebration of the Eucharist was a greater creative act than the creation of the universe.  Now I think greater theological minds than mine would … Continue reading

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St. James, apostle

Today’s readings “Can you drink the chalice of which I am going to drink?” What does that even mean for us?  We know what Jesus’ chalice was like: it led him through sorrow, and abandonment, and ultimately to the cross.  … Continue reading

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Friday of the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time

Today’s readings Maybe you remember memorizing the Ten Commandments as a child.  I do.  I sometimes think that memorizing things is a lost art.  Certainly memorizing things like the Ten Commandments doesn’t happen as much as it used to, and … Continue reading

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Thursday of the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time

Today’s readings During the summer before my final year of seminary, I worked as a hospital chaplain.  It ended up being a pretty rough summer for me and the other men and women in the student chaplain group: we had … Continue reading

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St. Mary Magdalene

Today’s readings Today’s feast of St. Mary Magdalene is a good opportunity to set the record straight.  Mary Magdalene was not the woman caught in adultery, nor was she the unnamed “sinful woman” who anointed the feet of Jesus in … Continue reading

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Tuesday of the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time

Today’s readings A perfectly respectable reading of the whole Exodus story is the allegorical one.  In this reading, the Egyptian army, its chariots and charioteers and even its horses, symbolize the forces of evil and sin.  God loved the Israelites, … Continue reading

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Monday of the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time

Today’s readings It’s easy to have faith when our enemies aren’t pursuing us, isn’t it?  When things are going well, we can be people of faith with the best of them.  But it does take a certain amount of sainthood … Continue reading

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