The Good Word

To begin Lent the Church asks us to consider the three temptations that Jesus underwent in the desert according to Matthew and Luke nbsp What is important about the scene of the temptations is the answers Jesus gives to each temptation nbsp If you read again Jesus s responses to them it will

The gospel reading for the First Sunday of Lent is the testing of Jesus in the wilderness After fasting for forty days Jesus is subjected to the devil s temptations I have always been struck by how the devil prefaces his first two attempts to trip up Jesus at least in Matthew s account If

Jesus does not talk about the story of Adam and Eve though Paul does giving it a powerful interpretation that may overwhelm our initiative to continue to reflect on it But Paul s view is not the only way forward here The Genesis story treats in a sophisticated and subtle way the profound que

Many avocations contribute greatly to the well-being of all of us to whatever happiness we might have on this earth Among these avoctions is teaching And a great promoter of teaching us when we first need learning is John Bosco His feast day January 31 recalls the vital significance of teac

There are so many passages in the Bible that lend themselves to the development of an ecojustice perspective Such a section is found in the Wisdom of Solomon a relatively little known and even less frequently cited source of ancient Israelite wisdom It is a reinterpretation of an earlier traditio

St Luke tells about the conversion then missioning of St Paul on three different occasions Acts 9 22 and 26 nbsp Though the number of details which change in these three accounts is great there is one repeated phrase which runs through them all nbsp Saul Saul why do you persecute Me nb

When lecturing on Paul s first letter to Corinthians Daniel J Harrington S J my colleague at Weston Jesuit School of Theology tells our students that there are no problems in the Church today that did not exist in some form in the early church at Corinth This insight can be consoling

Mark 3 1-6 the Gospel for today tells of Jesus curing of a withered hand In itself a noteworthy miracle an expression of good will of love But Mark sets the miracle in a context of controversy they continued to watch to see if Jesus would cure on the Sabbath and once he cured t

Though the compilers of the lectionary probably did not have the Presidential primary season in mind when selecting this week s passage from 1 Corinthians it is difficult for me as a resident of South Carolina to read these words from Paul without thinking of electoral politics With the Republ

How long should a good homily be That question is often discussed A related question–but one that is not often addressed–is how long goes a homily have to be In other words how short is too short I got to thinking about this question this weekend while visiting a parish in Massachusetts The