Michael Patella, OSB

Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us The disciples hearts were on fire during this sacred conversation And that fire was so hot that it indelibly seared their souls with the intimate knowledge peace and love of the resurre

In a German television news segment just before Christmas it was reported that the portion of the German population who called themselves religious stood at 70 Another 18 within that considered themselves deeply religious a definite highpoint within the last twenty-five years 1 Only the

It is not unusual for a gospel reading to employ highly exaggerated language and examples We see and hear them in the passage from Luke 14 25-33 Should we as followers of Christ hate our parents spouses children and siblings The mere thought seems antithetical to the Christian message An

A well known short story dating from 1916 is Franz Kafka s Metamorphosis In it the protagonist Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning and finds that during the night he has been somehow transformed into a cockroach This story became one of the defining pieces of the Twentieth Century a period who

Fire air earth and water considered in the classical world to be the four elements essential to the composition of the cosmos surface in the Pentecost reading We see the fire in the descirption of the tongues of flame carried in by the rushing air resting above the heads of those gathered in