The Good Word

What is God like How does he feel about us about you and me Jesus tells us through three stories — about a lost sheep a lost coin and a man whose son had gone wrong In the society of Jesus time many of the flocks of sheep were owned by the community two or three shepherds were in ch

24th Sunday A Bishop in a rural diocese was explaining to the confirmation class how he was the shepherd of the flock Given that many of the children came from large sheep ranches he decided to draw on today s Gospel as an analogy for his pastoral leadership I care for all of you like the Good

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

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Twenty-third Sunday The first reading Wis 9 13-18b offers a perspective that seems at odds with much that is claimed often in the Scripture predictably in homilies surely in popular pronouncement The Book of Wisdom likely the youngest book in the Old Testament speaks of the gap between what

The juxtaposition of the readings from Philemon 9-10 12-17 and the Gospel of Luke 14 25-33 place in high relief the issue of ancient Christian family values and much to the surprise and chagrin of some they do not replicate the values necessarily of either Mayberry or Riverdale or whatever

Our open house is officially over but you can still access old Word columns by registering with our site From now on Father Daniel Harrington s current Word column will only be available to subscribers Our special 12 offer is still in effect so we hope you ll join us It s a great deal

The National Catholic Bible Conference was held this summer in Chicago Among the talks it advertised was one entitled Old Testament Wars and the Spiritual Battle I did not go to the conference but I was intrigued by the description of this talk in the brochure I received How should we inter

Twenty-Second Sunday of the Year Sir 3 17-18 20 28-29 Heb 12 18-19 22-24 Luke 14 1 7-14 We all care about what other people think of us We want to be respected and to be taken seriously Our reputation is important to us And that s the way it should be On the other hand we would all agre

22nd Sunday One of the most basic human responses to anything new is to ask What s in it for me We would like to think our motives are pure and our interests are for others but there is often a nagging voice reminding us that selfish desires are never far from the surface That said we all